Speech therapy for executive function

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> School age children

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amother

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 7:54 am

My dd5's OT is recommending an evaluation for speech therapy to help with her executive function.

Can someone please explain the connection?

Thank you

miami85

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 9:59 am

Not quite sure what she's talking about but there's a possibility that she's noticing a "motor planning" issue as- speech and fine motor issues can be intertwined, and executive function is a grander form of motor planing.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 10:46 am

Hi I’m a speech therapist.
Executive functioning is a huge part of speech.

honey36

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 10:49 am

AFAIK executive function is just a higher level of language skills. So if an slp can help a child with language they can help a child with executive functions.

Im pretty sure executive function skills include memory skills, organization skills...forget what else but basically applying language skills for use in these areas.

amother

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 10:49 am

amother [ Amethyst ] wrote:

Hi I’m a speech therapist.
Executive functioning is a huge part of speech.

Even if her verbal skills are advanced?

(Thank you)

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 10:51 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Even if her verbal skills are advanced?

(Thank you)

Yes. We don’t only work with verbal skills and articulation. Most of my work is cognition and language application. Executive functioning falls under both.

amother

Bisque

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 10:52 am

My first grader gets speech and she has executive functioning/motor planning issues.

The speech is for articulation not for language.

Her brain knows exactly what she needs to say but she ends up cutting off beginning and ending of words because she is thinking faster than she can speak.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 11:11 am

amother [ Bisque ] wrote:

Does your daughter have childhood apraxia? That’s not executive functioning, but it’s definitely a motor planning thing! It just means that the part of the brain that tells the muscles how to move in order to make a sound isn’t functioning the way it should be. Nothing to do with cognition.

amother

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 11:13 am

amother [ Amethyst ] wrote:

Yes. We don’t only work with verbal skills and articulation. Most of my work is cognition and language application. Executive functioning falls under both.

Thank you.

She is the youngest in the class (kindergarten) and I wonder if some of the issues are her being a full year younger than some of the other kids.

She has a hard time keeping track of her things and following when the move from center to center.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 11:19 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

We are absolutely qualified to help with that Smile

I can give you more clarifying info, if you need!

amother

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 11:21 am

amother [ Amethyst ] wrote:

We are absolutely qualified to help with that Smile

I can give you more clarifying info, if you need!

Thank you so much.

I have asked to have her evaluated for speech, it just seemed so strange to me given that her language is a couple of years ahead of her age.

I really appreciate the reassurance.

amother

Bisque

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 11:36 am

amother [ Amethyst ] wrote:

She got numerous evaluations because she keeps getting denied for services at the end of the year and then I have to reevaluate and fight for it the next year. She even had a neuropsych done once. No one ever mentioned childhood apraxia. She also sometimes substitutes certain sounds for others in running speech yet on a single word level she is totally capable of making all sounds. Her speech in general sounds very immature yet her language is totally normal which is why she keeps getting denied....

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 12:55 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Thank you so much.

I have asked to have her evaluated for speech, it just seemed so strange to me given that her language is a couple of years ahead of her age.

I really appreciate the reassurance.

So we deal with a lot of stuff, many things most people are unaware of!
There’s the obvious articulation (which is not as common as you think) and vocabulary. There’s also auditory comprehension and following directions. There’s apraxia, as I mentioned before which is a motor planning issue, aka a problem forming the sounds because the planning got a little lost. That falls under aphasia and is usually something we work on with stroke victims, but there’s also CAS (childhood apraxia of speech), and the sounds come out skewed. That’s not executive functioning. There’s social skills/ pragmatics. There’s grammar. There’s feeding and swallowing. Voice.
There’s also a ton more, depending on age group. I work with geriatrics, so I see a lot of stroke victims, Parkinson’s, dementia, Covid victims, trachs, etc.
But besides for the speechy stuff, we also deal with cognition and higher level language. Executive functioning falls under both. It has nothing to do with vocabulary, communication, or language usage. It’s all about working memory, time management, organizational skills, task initiation, self regulation and impulse control, focus, overall flexibility. There’s a lot of overlap with OT, I think they deal with this, too.

amother

Amethyst

Tue, Mar 09 2021, 12:56 pm

amother [ Bisque ] wrote:

That’s so frustrating! I hate when that happens.
Do you see her groping to get the right sound sometimes?

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