Speech Therapy for Children with Asperger's Syndrome?


Several parents of extremely verbal children with Asperger Syndrome are surprised when it is suggested that Speech Therapy may help their child with communication difficulties. The difficulties are not in how the child speaks or pronounces words, but rather in how the child perceives the meaning of other people's speach and how they respond to it.

There are many expressions we use that are confusing to a child or youth with Asperger Syndrome. Until you listen closely to the kinds of questions your child asks about what other people say, this problem is an easy one to miss.

For example, the other night my husband was holding a wooden bowl in his hands. Our younger son said "Can I see that?" and put out his hands to hold it. Our older son with AS immediately asked "Why do people always say what they don't mean?" This had us puzzled until we dug a little deeper and found out the reason for his confusion. When my son stated "Why do people say "Can I see that" when they really mean "Can I hold that"?" There was no way in which my husband and I could explain to our son why people say something that isn't what they mean to our son's satisfaction. I suspect that this problem occurs daily in my son's life, contributing to his stress and anxiety in dealing with the school environment.

Speech therapy can assist your child with the understanding of what other people mean when they speak and do something completely different. Social skills can be incorporated into the speech therapy as well. When I brought up speech therapy for my son, who is 12 and extremely verbal, at a recent school meeting there were some rather skeptical looks pointed my way until I explained the theory that speech therapy is one way of helping children with AS extract the meaning of other people's speach. Using the above incidence as an example of the difficulty my son has, the teachers understood and are now incorporating this into my son's IEP.

There's an excellent website here: http://www.csld.com/AspergersMyKid.htm

The copyright of the article Speech Therapy for Children with Asperger's Syndrome? in Asperger's/Autism is owned by Barbara Fowler. Permission to republish Speech Therapy for Children with Asperger's Syndrome? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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