posted May 20, 2015, 3:55 PM by San Jose Scottish Rite   [ updated May 20, 2015, 3:55 PM ]
Allyson is an adorable 5 year old girl who has been seen for speech and language therapy over the past year at the San Jose Scottish Rite Speech & Language Clinic.  Her mother heard about our clinic from a friend of their family.  Her mother and aunt originally brought her to the clinic because of a lack of language development, an increased use of “jargon” and because she was very difficult to understand.  At this point Allyson was not using her language in a functional way and often repeated lines from movies and television programs.  
At home Allyson’s family speaks primarily in Indonesian.  She is exposed to English at school and also uses some English at home as well.  Her mother initially reported that Allyson’s delays were noticed when she was speaking in both English and Indonesian.  
Allyson has made great gains during her treatment over the course of the last year.   Initially, she was a very shy, quiet little girl.  Simple questions such as “how are you?” were confusing…..Allyson would respond by saying her name.  She was unsure of her age and unable to shake her head to indicate yes or no.  Most of her language was very difficult to understand.  Allyson relied heavily on gestures to indicate her wants and needs.  She used mainly 1 and 2 word utterances.  At four years of age, she was judged to have a moderate to severe language disorder.
As Allyson became more familiar with her therapist and the expectations of her therapy sessions, she began to progress.  She is now a very engaging and funny little girl who can make her wants and needs known.  Many of her goals have been met and new ones have been created over the past year.  Currently, therapy goals include age appropriate vocabulary and basic concepts, following 2 step directions and answering “when” and “where” questions.  Many speech sounds are also being targeted, such as /sh/ and final consonants in 2 and 3 syllable words.
Allyson’s mother stated that prior to services at the clinic, “My child was very quiet and seldom spoke.  She mostly used body language to express her needs.  Now she talks so much more and knows a lot more vocabulary.”  She feels that Allyson is now more confident to make conversation with people.  She stated, “My experience at the clinic has been very pleasant and has helped our family very much.”