Both of our children have weaknesses in language comprehension. There are a lot of similarities in their lack of skill in speaking and understanding words and their meanings. Each boy displays limitations in perception and the ability to express themselves through speech. Randy has been officially diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome along with ADHD, impulse disorder (a piggyback disorder of ADHD), and other learning disabilities. Because Daniel displayed no tendencies of violent or irrational behavior, he was not examined for any mental disorders before the boys came to live with us. I think Daniel was overlooked in the process because his symptoms were benign and nonviolent; his mother wasn’t concerned with her safety. Also, he didn’t display any inept tendencies in the classroom; he could stay fairly focused and do his work. Randy displayed violent tendencies and was ineffectual in school. Randy’s symptoms were obvious and threatening to those around him, therefore treatment was important to his mother for her safety. Through close observation, it is my opinion that both boys suffer from FAE to some degree; because I am not a qualified physician, their symptoms could be rooted in another source or be a combination of FAE and other disorders. The symptoms are not severe, but they are there. Factoring in their abusive past, there are most likely other causes (physiological, psychological, and environmental) for their weak language skills.
In researching the problem, I found there are two categories of weakness. In the course of working on strengthening their language comprehension, we have used exercises to help them build their cognitive language comprehension. Listed below are the examples we use.
Receptive Language Skills-Incoming Conversation
Children lacking or weak in this area don’t absorb instruction as well as they should. They don’t seem to hear all or part of a description, explanation, or instruction. When listening to a conversation, they will miss some of the dialogue and ask questions that were already answered. To help the boys strengthen their listening and comprehension abilities we integrated these ideas into our routine.
1. Give detailed instructions with steps involved to complete the task. Randy, please empty the trash in the kitchen and the bathroom. After you take the bags outside and put them in the garbage cans, come back in and put new trash liners in the trash cans.
2. Ask your child to repeat the instructions back to you, step by step. Could you please repeat what I just told you in the order you are supposed to do it? I use this one a lot!
3. Don’t put your child’s thoughts in overload by giving too much information at once, keep sentences short and simple. Would you like to go to the park? Do you want to play ball or frisbee? Let’s take a picnic lunch. Do you want tuna on your sandwich?
Expressive Language Skills-Outgoing Conversation
Children weak in this area have problems communicating with the appropriate words. This disorder is characterized by limited vocabulary. They can confuse descriptions by using the wrong words. When telling a story, they can describe the timelines out of context.
1. Play the Adjective Game. We started playing this game our first year together, it was one of our favorites while waiting for the school bus. I would use a noun and they had to give me a descriptive adjective. For example I would say to Randy, Pamela Anderson, his reply would be beautiful. This is a fun game and multi teaches. The parent can also initiate the word game by using adjective synonyms. When the boys got tired of describing nouns, we would find a descriptive word for another word, pretty-cute, hot-warm, cold-chilly. The latter was their favorite game to play. Searching for adjective synonyms and descriptive adjectives for nouns teaches your child to expand his vocabulary.
2. Point out chronological order. Daniel is notorious for starting in the middle and telling a story. He absolutely cannot get the beginning, middle, and end in the right order. We have to ask him which part came first, where did the story begin, how come the turtle beat the rabbit when the race hasn’t started yet?
3. Use the dictionary and Thesaurus. When your child has trouble communicating a word or doesn’t understand the meaning, look it up. Daniel and Randy have learned to rely on them heavily. They are helpful tools in this house.
Postscript: I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies tonight. While Randy piled his plate high, he noted, these are the kind I like, they’re flimsy….wrong descriptive word, he meant soft. It is an ongoing learning process.