<p>Bluecroo, he hasn’t had any evaluations since he was in preschool. At that time, he didn’t talk and when he tried had a severe stuttering problem. It was heartbreaking. The problem was reportedly due to loss of hearing from ear infections at a critical age. Anyway, I took a year leave of absence from my job and he went to speech therapy several days per week and worked at home daily on learning to speak. He was actually cured by kindergarten (about 1.5 years), which amazed me since the books I read on severe stuttering such as his were discouraging about the possibility of full recovery. I haven’t heard him stutter since age 4.</p>
<p>I will check into testing again, in part because it would be helpful to know what grade level he reads at now so I don’t over shoot or under shoot his abilities in our reading choices. </p>
<p>I also like the idea of reading good writing to teach good writing as this serves a dual purpose of also teaching him to enjoy reading. I wrote down all of the book suggestions by an earlier poster. I have a book called Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose that is excellent. However, it is fairly advanced. It would be great for college students.</p>
<p>The thing that’s difficult with reading very good writers is that many of them use advanced writing techniques or incorrect grammar/punctuation that beginning writers shouldn’t try to mimic. Definitely read the best writing, but you’ll want to avoid teaching a “copycat” method with some of the authors.</p>
<p>Take a look at Hemingway if he wants to gain confidence with novel reading. Hemingway uses simple and clear sentences and sentence structures, so it’s not difficult to understand what is actually happening in the story, as can be the case with the Iliad.</p>
<p>Most people equate speech therapy with kids who can’t prounounce words correctly. That is speech production. Making sounds correctly. Language is the process of thinking (cognition) and organizing words (semantics) into grammatically correct (syntax) sentences that communicate the intent of the speaker and are appropriate to the context and people involved (pragmatics). By the time kids get to middle school and high school, speech-language pathologists deal more with spoken language (expressive) and receptive language (comprehension). If a kid still mispronounces his sounds by that age, it is unlikely to improve (though there are exceptions…but rare). Many students fall through the cracks with subtle language impairments until they get to middle and high school, when suddenly the complexity and abstraction of language becomes more important to success. When I worked with middle school students, I had a caseload of 40. 36 were in therapy for language delay; 4 were working on speech articulation because their speech was interfering with success in school.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst: By the way, early hearing loss and delayed speech, may result in both a speech production and a language impairment. Put your mind at ease and have him evaluated…</p>
<p>FYI: The American Speech and Hearing Association changed it’s name several years ago to the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association and Speech Therapists are actually called Speech Language-Pathologists. In schools they may be called Speech and Language Specialists depending on the credentials required by the state and school district.</p>
<p>That’s interesting, Blucroo. Thanks. Your description with the right vocabulary is perfect. I am very thankful to good Speech Language-Pathologists. I drove sometimes a long distance to appointments, and I had four pathologists who gave up and told my parents that I would never speak correctly before, in an act of desperation, going to the last woman who had me pronouncing sounds that I could never pronounce before on the first day. I also likely suffered hearing loss in childhood due to ear infections (coupled with a resistance to antibiotics). Today I am known for my ability to speak and express myself well, and these skills have greatly aided in many of the successes I’ve had thus far. Anyway, I am very thankful to your profession.</p>
<p>Thanks corrnged…an often unfamiliar, underrated profession. Excellent job market (at least in southern california) and the pay is decent depending on credentials (master’s degree, certification, licensing) and the specific job site. One will not get rich monetarily, but if the work can be rewarding.</p>