When Braylen was 3-years-old, he could barely communicate. At an age when most children are talking about anything and everything, he wasn’t saying very much. ln fact, he could say a few words consistently, like “ball,” and a few scripted phrases, like “I don’t wanna.” His mother turned to Columbus Speech & Hearing for help.
Braylen was scheduled for a speech-language evaluation, in which a licensed and certified therapist determines the communication ability of a child by assessing receptive and expressive language, social, articulation, oral motor, voice, and fluency skills. The speech-language evaluation is key in determining deficits and creating a treatment plan. Our Speech-Language Pathologist noted that during the evaluation, Braylen was observed to use mostly babble talk, minimal real words, and a few gestures for things like “eat” or “drink.” Braylen was diagnosed with Severe Expressive Language Disorder. Although they generally understand what is said to them, children with expressive language delays often do not talk much, they may forget words, and have trouble making complete sentences. He began individual speech therapy sessions right away.
According to his mother, his SLP was totally tuned into whatever worked best for Braylen. Therapy was based on what he was interested in at any given time. Braylen really enjoyed practicing between sessions with his favorite therapist from videos his mother had taped during therapy sessions. As a full time nurse, Braylen’s mother vowed to do whatever she had to do to keep him in speech therapy. The whole family worked together not only to bring him to each session but also to encourage him to practice. After a short time, he was exploding with words, so much so that he developed a mild stuttering disorder. CSH and Braylen worked on fluency, the flow in sounds, syllables, words and phrases in speech. They also worked on rhyming words and reading to help him in school.
Now, he has such a large vocabulary, it’s impossible to even count the number of words he can say! He speaks in long sentences and has completely age-appropriate language skills. His mother says, “He’s doing so we’ll, it’s like he’s a different kid.” Braylen is finished with speech therapy, has just graduated from kindergarten and is very excited to begin first grade.