Perserveration/cluttering? Normal or not?

[dmmetler]

I've noticed that Alli's speech has many of the same traits mine does-for example, this morning, when we were putting on her shoes, she got stuck on "da shoes, da shoe, da shoe" and was definitely getting more frustrated. I asked her to sign it, she signed SHOES and came up with "da shoes are PINK!". That getting stuck, having the concept in your head and literally being unable to say it until it's released is the primary characteristic of my form of dyspraxia-and, in fact, is the reason I learned Sign language as a child, because it was one strategy. I don't do this often enough anymore (particularly not since I'm signing almost constantly when she's around) for her to be learning it as a behavioral thing via modeling-so I'm wondering if this is normal when a child is starting to talk, or if she's showing signs of similar speech issues to mine.

Similarly, she has the cluttered speech-words run together, extra syllables added at the front of words (but not true stuttering), and limited inflection which is also very much like my speech-but, after almost 20 years of therapy, is not very present.

So-does anyone know when these sort of speech/language issues become issues as opposed to normal speech development? I know that her omitting or mispronouncing a lot of sounds is no big deal-that those continue to develop even into elementary school years, but I'm not sure on the fluency things.

[grojas]

I am a bilingual speech/language pathologist (Spanish/English) and although I don't consider myself an expert on fluency I would say that there are good resources out there where you can take Alli for diagnosis. First of all, the articulation/phonological errors may be developmental in nature. So phonemes such as /s/, /th/, /r/, /s/ as well as phonological processes such cluster reduction "no"/snow, "cool"/school, "tee"/tree, weak syllable deletion "agator"/alligator, are well within expectation. The fluency, we tend to look at frequency (how often is she dysfluent, percentage of time) as well as severity (any secondary characteristics such as eye blinks?, facial grimaces?, etc). There are techniques to help facilitate "easy speech" where you work with breathing and paired phonation with the breath. So if she's getting stuck on particular hard sounds /g/, /k/ you would potentially help her learn how to produce the sounds as she exhales. Like I said, I am no expert in this particular area of speech/language as I am mostly diagnosing bilingual children with articulation/language issues. Here is a website you might find helpful
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/stutter.asp or you can log onto the ASHA website. Gloria

[lovemy6sweeties]

My typically developing children's brains always seem to move faster than their mouths when they were first gaining speech. It looks like Alli isn't even 2 yet, so I think her being able to express that the shoes are pink is very advanced :) I wouldn't worry about it just yet - of course, I'm no professional - just the parent of 6 kiddos, 5 with no speech delays and 1 with :)

Not sure if that helps or not :)

[dmmetler]

Thanks! Sometimes it's hard to tell where "normal" ends and "exceptional" begins, especially in the areas where I'm super attuned and a bit on the paranoid side.