What parents need to know when language and speech development is delayed!

Angie Brasher is a Speech and Language Pathologist. She breaks down language development in an easy format. She talks about the importance of early intervention in promoting language development and what parents can do to help kiddos build on this skill.

Transcription

Marsh Naidoo (00:26):

Welcome to this episode of Raising Kellan the podcast to motivate, inspire, and educate parents, raising kids with developmental disabilities. I am your host, Marsh Naidoo, and I'm here today sitting down to chat with Angie Brasher. Welcome, Angie. Thank

Angie Brasher (00:47):

You.

Marsh Naidoo (00:47):

I met Angie through a dear friend of ours, Deborah Keenan. In talking with Kellan, Deborah had noticed that when other people came in, they had difficulty understanding what Kellan was saying. She wanted me to reach out to Angie, who actually is an awesome speech and language pathologist, and Angie has much experience dealing with augmentative-assisted communication devices. Through the last couple of months, Angie has done much to promote these devices as well as talk to the moms in our BUDS group. This is an informal group where moms come together in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

(01:40):

Where were you born Angie?

Angie Brasher (01:42):

I was born in Memphis, Tennessee many years ago.

Marsh Naidoo (01:46):

<laugh> A local girl. That's what I like. Here we go. What sets you on the trajectory to becoming a speech therapist, Angie?

Angie Brasher (01:54):

Well, I first majored in education. I thought I wanted to be a teacher but once I got into education, I realized I also wanted to have the opportunity to work with adults as well and just to work with a wide range of individuals. So I was drawn to speech therapy and my career did lead me into working with adults and children, and I just love being able to work with all ages.

Marsh Naidoo (02:21):

And I think a question that I've always had in my mind is what is the difference between a speech therapist and an audiologist?

Angie Brasher (02:30):

Okay. A speech therapist, or you may hear is called speech language pathologist. We work with children and adults who have difficulty communicating verbally. An audiologist works with clients who have difficulty hearing.

Marsh Naidoo (02:47):

All right. Now, Angie, tell what actually is communication. How does the speech and language pathologist break that down?

Angie Brasher (02:56):

Yes, we break that down into speech and we listen to the child's or the adult's speech sounds, how they're articulating their words, and then we listen to their language. Are they able to put the words together to form phrases or sentences and can they participate in conversation and form many sentences back to back and remain on topic and communicate? And that at that level of communication,

Marsh Naidoo (03:25):

Does your speech become affected versus viza?

Angie Brasher (03:29):

Well, they can just have an articulation disorder where they're having difficulty producing sounds accurately. They could just have a stuttering problem in their and their language be normal, or they could have both where they're not pronouncing their words correctly and they're having difficulty forming sentences or putting two or three words together.

Marsh Naidoo (03:50):

What can we do as parents too to facilitate that communication?

Angie Brasher (03:56):

Yes, moms are, and dads are typically very good at just automatically labeling items in the child's environment. So when they give the bottle, they say, Are you ready for your bottle? Right. They come here or let's go. And these are just common phrases and sentences and labels that parents put on everything and they're modeling to their child, This is what we say in this situation, this is what we say to label this object. So you just do a lot of labeling for the child. Also, reading books is great because they learn to language, they learn the pictures, and that increases their vocabulary as well. So any kind of verbal interaction, the child is learning with each interaction.

Marsh Naidoo (04:46):

How does the parent get to you, Angie, or who makes a referral to the speech and hearing therapist?

Angie Brasher (04:54):

Yes, typically pediatricians do. The pediatricians will know about the local speech therapists in their area. They'll know who works with children and will know who to recommend in that area. So your pediatrician is your best bet, a great place to start,

Marsh Naidoo (05:14):

And often, her mom's instincts kicks in when there is a somewhat of a, some might say delay in her child speaking or communicating with her, what would you say some of those red flags are?

Angie Brasher (05:30):

Yeah, she may notice that either the child's not attempting to verbalize at all, or if the child does attempt to verbalize, she may over time eventually understand what the child is saying. But she may notice when others come into the home they don't understand the child, or if they go out in public and the child speaks, others don't understand the child. Those typically are the first red flags that you'll notice. Either he's not speaking, is not speaking at all. He's not attempting to commute

Marsh Naidoo (06:04):

Or milestone that you're looking at as far as age is concerned?

Angie Brasher (06:10):

Well, we're hoping typically around, at least by the two-year mark, he has some words that he can say clearly. But typically by the two-year mark, kids are putting two words together. So they should be saying things like, Go mama or Baba mama, and they want their bottle. So they'll start to combine a few words at that point. And if that's not happening, that's another red flag.

Marsh Naidoo (06:37):

Well, that's an awesome nugget of information there, Angie. I think that's, that's just really insightful to me. Listen, how does a parent get to you, Angie? What is the protocol? What is the referral source? How does that happen?

Angie Brasher (06:52):

Typically, a parent will just bring up the topic with their pediatrician and say, Is my child communicating like you should at this age? And pediatricians know the milestones and know how a child should be developing verbally and with their language. And if the pediatrician notices that the child's just not where he should be in his development, he will know or he or she will know to go ahead and refer that child to a speech therapist. Because early intervention is key. It's great to get the kids involved in therapy when they're young and right from the beginning. So usually pediatricians are good about that.

Marsh Naidoo (07:37):

Let me ask you this, What is in your toolbox, Angie, as a speech and hearing pathologist? What is in your toolbox?

Angie Brasher (07:45):

Well, lately in the past few years, I've really have gotten into enjoying AAC devices. AAC stands for augmentative and alternative devices that are used for communication. They're electronic devices that children use. They can point to different symbols on the screen of the device and the device will speak for them. So there are pictures on the screen that the child can point to for drink and the device will say, I wanna drink or toys. We can program the device with the child's favorite toys, activities, and the child can learn what each symbol means and they can point to the symbols on the screen and the device will speak for them if the child is having difficulty communicating verbally on their own.

Marsh Naidoo (08:34):

Are these devices something that a mom would use before they learn signing? How does sign language wrap into augmentative and alternative communication devices?

Angie Brasher (08:50):

That's a good question. Typically, as speech therapist, we first tried different options for the child. American sign language is an option or gestures that the child could use to communicate if he does wanna drink or if he's all done with an activity. Those are signs that he can learn to communicate, and it's a good sign if a child can learn to use gestures or sign language, that means they are attempting to communicate in some form or fashion. And if a speech language pathologist can see that, then she knows, Okay, this child is wanting to communicate, is able to express some language, maybe we can now move on to a more high tech version and introduce a AAC device.

Marsh Naidoo (09:39):

All right. Now I've heard Angie, and I'm not gonna, just an interesting concept that some parents or some professionals feel that the communication device become something that a child becomes dependent on and will impede language development. What is your insight into this area?

Angie Brasher (10:03):

That's a very common concern that we hear about from parents, but AAC devices have been around for over 20 years now, which has allowed researchers to follow these children who are given communication devices and see how they do long term. And the evidence has shown, without a doubt that these devices promote speech and language skills. It helps them, the children learn at a faster rate than they would otherwise. It allows them to hear vocabulary that they may not otherwise hear. It allows them to learn about the pictures and how the pictures match up with words. And then it's just very interesting because when the device speaks for the child, typically most children will want to imitate that speech and they start to imitate on their own. And of course, a speech therapist and the parents are also encouraging the child to imitate what they heard the device say as well. So we have found, or researchers have found, and I have seen it as well as I've worked with children, that typically 80% or more of the children will begin to speak at an earlier age. If they have the device, then they would have without it.

Marsh Naidoo (11:20):

All right. Well, I tell you what, you have been absolutely insightful. Some of the things that I've taken from this talk today in this podcast today, Angie, was that typically you all look out for kids being able to string two words together by two, start that communication early by labeling things for your child, giving them choices. Anything else you wanna add to that?

Angie Brasher (11:50):

I would just add, if you have some concern, don't hesitate to bring that up to your pediatrician. It's just early intervention. I know I stressed it earlier, but it, it's, it's so good for children and for families to if they see something that's not just right, go ahead and speak about it. Bring it up. Because early intervention can make all the difference. And I just want parents to know that there's a lot available now. Yes, ma'am. Electronic devices, simple buttons and switches that communicate communication boards, sign language, and all of these promote language development and it helps speed up the speech development as well. So the sooner we can get something in as a tool that the child can use, the better. And we've also found that if nothing is introduced to the child to help promote speech and language development, that they often become frustrated.

(12:56):

They often begin to have behavioral issues by age two and a half to three. If they're not able to verbalize their needs because their needs are not being met, the child will request I'm hungry or I'm thirsty, or they want to be able to express that. And if they're not understood by a parent, the child becomes frustrated. Oftentimes, I hear the parents say, I'm just so frustrated too because I want to meet my child's needs, but I just can't understand what he's trying to tell me. So the sooner we can get a speech therapist in there to help and make recommendations, the better.

Marsh Naidoo (13:36):

I mean, I was blown away. I mean, a friend of mine actually in South Africa her son uses an augmentative and alternative assistive device using eye gaze, which I thought was phenomenal. I mean, a child with limited physical mobility is still able to develop their cognition using their eyes. I mean, that's remarkable. <laugh>,

Angie Brasher (14:02):

The technology is incredible. Yes, eye gaze is an option, a head mouse. So they can also have a dot on their head and the computer will pick up that dot and be able to track what they're looking at on the screen. So eye movement, head movement, use of a hand, use of a finger, all different ways that if they're not verbally communicating, I mean, I've even heard stories of a child using a big toe to point to a device and communicate. So the possibilities are endless. I want parents to know that there's all kinds of options and the sooner you start to explore the better and it just opens up the child's world.

Marsh Naidoo (14:45):

Angie, we could go on talking through this whole night probably, but I know those moms are busy and those dads are busy and they've, they've gotta go on. So I am, we are going to actually stop talking and let you get on with your day. And for parents that wanna reach you, Angie, how can they do that if they have any questions related to be communication devices?

Angie Brasher (15:11):

Well, first I'd recommend that the parents maybe look online and put in AAC communication devices. You can see all different options on there. And then if you've got questions, you can certainly contact me at AngiedBrasher@gmail.com

Marsh Naidoo (15:36):

Well, Angie, thank you so, so much for sitting down and talking with us today and empowering and educating us. And this is Marsh Naidoo signing off with another podcast of Raising Kien. And remember folks, till we see you the next time, get to the top of that mountain.