| In the early years it can be very confusing when communicating with your dyspraxic child. The same word is pronounced differently each time it is attempted. Sign Language is fantastic for clarifying meaning and I also found that creating a database of my son's word attempts helpful for deciphering the meaning he intended. A database can be used as a dictionary where you can look up the word attempt and see which actual word is being attempted. This works in a similar way to an Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary, except the language is that of your dyspraxic child rather than Italian. This works well in situations where your child has one word which he uses for a number of different actual words. You can quickly run through all the options and your child will let you know which one he means. A database is also great for being able to see speech progress. Seeing your child advance in speech and creep closer and closer to clearer speech is very encouraging. I really recommend going to the effort of creating a database because it makes your life easier and is great for coping with those plateau stages. Below is an excerpt of my dyspraxic son's database. Each dyspraxic child is different and will have different speech sounds. I have included this table as an example of the speech progress in specific words for one dyspraxic child. |
| Actual Word | Word 1 | Word 2 | Word 3 | Word 4 | Word 5 | |
| Barney | Gukee | Bahbay | Bah-ee | Barney | ||
| cuddle | ka-ka | cukkoow | tuttoow | cuddool | ||
| giraffe | kark | dart | ||||
| hippo | pippo | hippo | ||||
| pillow | pitoh | pillow | ||||
| sleep | kark | keek | peep | seep | ||
| Suzy | Gukee | Choochee | Shooshee | Suzy | ||
| turtle | gukee | tahtoo | turtoow | turtool | ||
| yellow | ka-koh | lellow |
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CopyrightŠ1999.Jackie