Speaks like a robot

Good question. What happens if someone deliberately models a different tone or a diffferent way to speak for him? If you play a game that goes like the old “walk like I walk “game… make it “talk like I talk” game. Then try to make it a fun, light-hearted experience. Say a whispered sentence and have him repeat it - in a whisper. Say a sentence in an excited voice and have him repeat it. You could also do this with the rate or speed of your sentence. Speak a very fast sentence and have him repeat it. Speak a very slow sentence…

I’d stick to one or the other at the beginning. Either pitch or speed and if it were me, I’d do pitch first. It should always be done in a pleasant way.

Sometimes the only thing we can do is try to model the right way to do it. In this game, you’re modeling a different way to speak.

Good luck.

You don’t say if he had any other speech difficulties in the past. Things like excessive drooling as an infant, late speech, difficulty with words of more than one syllable? Monotone or flat speech is regularly seen in children with Verbal Apraxia. Even if there were no earlier speech problems, you might talk to a speech therapist about what therapies they use for Apraxia. Better yet request a speech evaluation since it is affecting his social interactions at school. He would probobly qualify for help in that area.

He can mimic us if we ask him to, but changes in pitch and speed will not carry over when he is having a conversation. Have you had much success with your suggestions. Any encouragement appreciated.

He was an extremely early talker, like many with NLD. However he did have articulation troubles. He is currently seeing a speech therapist who specializes in children on the spectrum, but we are seeing few changes. Any books or tapes you could recommend?

Ann,

Have you ever seen the book called “The Source For Nonverbal Learning Disorders” put out by LinguiSystems, Inc.? It was published in 1997. It’s written for both parents and teachers. (I like all “The Source” books because they’re very readable and chock full of info). It explains NLD in general and then also certain syndromes that fall into an NLD classification. At the end of the book there’s a resource list. Since this book was published in 1997, it’s possible some of these websites may have moved or are no longer active. Hopefully, though, somewhere someone can give you some strategies to try. From what I’ve read in this book, it’s a very hard thing to accomplish because of the neurological wiring in the brain. It’s just not equipped to understand inflection. I don’t know how much could be taught. The book mentions the Yale/LDA Social Learning Disabilities Study, saying that it outlines goals for Social Skills Training and it does include voice inflection among other goals. Maybe you can contact Yale.

Hopefully, some of these resources will help you:

NLD Hotline: 408-748-7385

Websites and Bulletin Boards:

Edlaw provides info on special ed. law:
http://www.access.digex.net/~edlawinc/

CHADD contains the latest ADD info:
http://www.chadd.org/

American Hyperlexia Association’s site:
http://www.hyperlexia.org/

Online Asperger’s Syndrome Info and Support (OASIS):
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger

At the time of the book’s publication the NLD Line didn’t have a website address available but you apparently can link to it from the OASIS site above.

Parent’s Educational Resources Center was founded to to “improve the lives of families with learning disorders”:
http://www.perc-schwabfdn.org/

Parents Helping Parents
http://www.php.com/

Other parent organizations:
Learning Disabilities Association of America
http://www.ldanatl.org

Asperger’s Syndrome Education Network of America (ASPEN):
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/

Audiotapes from the SHARE Support NLD Symposium are available from:
http://www.contemp-med-ed.com

.

I am really just starting to research myself so I don’t have a lot of info available but I just wonder if the strategies used for the monotone and flat speech seen in DVA wouldn’t work for other disabilities? It might be worth looking into and your SLP might know about existing therapies for DVA. Good luck and keep us apprised….

You ask him to mimic you and he can do that? That’s a good sign. It means he can hear the differences in pitch and speed.

I ‘d also ask this. When he’s talking (is it too slowly or too fast that he speaks?) what happens if you ask him to “hurry it up”? Does he respond to that by speeding up his rate of speech? Or if you would ask him to slow it down, would he do that as he speaks to you?

I’m not a speech-language pathologist but my feeling would be there wouldn’t be any quick fix to this. My own son had issues with his speech that took years to work on and to this day his speech is not perfect. He did learn to vary his tone but he’s never learned to say certain sounds properly.

You might want to have his ‘auditory tonal processing’ abilities checked. Many people do sound therapy to help correct this problem. The difference between the ‘sad’ voice and the ‘happy’ voice is nothing more than a different frequency range of tones. If you can’t ‘hear’ these, you may never be able to distinguish and use them? Has your son had a history of ear infections and/or fluid in ears? Asthma, allergies etc.?

(excerpt on an NACD article from their web site that may help you better understand what is meant by auditory tonal processing.)

To understand the significance of hearing it is important to note that the auditory nerve, which is the 8th Cranial nerve, is the most primitive
nerve in the body; the first nerve to develop in the fetus. This nerve and the stimulation of this nerve are very critical to the entire development of the child. The
brain begins to learn how to process sounds in utero. The child is not born with the ability to process a full range of tones well, as a matter of fact, many people
never learn to process a full range of tones well. The human ear can process tones throughout a huge range, from 20 Hz. to 20,000 Hz. The brain must learn how
to process these tones, particularly the tones that are within the language range. One can develop an understanding of tonal processing by looking at the ability to
hear and articulate a foreign language. The child generally learns how to process the tones in their native language during their first two years of life; some tones
are unique to specific languages and absent in others. If the child has not learned to hear those tones the child will not be able to articulate those tones, and if
enough of those tones are missing, the language, which they are processing, is extremely garbled. An example of a missing tone is the inability or difficulty of
Japanese speakers to hear or pronounce “R” sounds. To speak a language you must be able to hear the specific tones in that language.

Hi,

Thanks for replying. Does an audiologist check this? And would a regular SLP work with him to correct this, if he has this problem?

Thanks.

He speaks very slowly. He also moves very slowly. Telling him to hurry at anything usually doesn’t result in any noticeable difference, though on occasion (rare) it has. Thanks.

What is DVA? Thanks.