SPD Speech and Language Samples

© Babs@spdsupport

I have included these sound files on the site to give parents some idea of how Semantic Pragmatic Disorder manifests itself and develops over time. I hope you find them interesting and that they help alleviate some of your worries for the future. I will explain a little about what is going on too.

To listen to a recording of my son's speech at 3 years old, which highlights the use of jargon and echolalia please click

HERE - 3 YEARS OLD

File size is 1.20mb, copyrighted, and must not be reproduced without permission of the owner of this site

To listen to a sample of his speech at 4 years old please click

HERE - 4 YEARS OLD

File size is 1.79mb, copyrighted, and must not be reproduced without permission of the owner of this site

Language Sample taken at 7 years old

• "Why do we have to go to MacDonald’s always" ....meaning..."Why do we have to always go to MacDonald’s"
  
  
• "I’ll get outside ready".......meaning....."I’ll wait outside"
  
  
• "Ryan why are you so rushing?"......meaning......"Ryan why are you in such a rush?."
  
  
• "So is me"......meaning......"same as me"
  
  
• "What if it doesn’t be here in 15 minutes" meaning "what if it isn’t here in 15 minutes."
  
  
• "I came in to have a water of drink"
  
  
• "Remember when they took a very bit close near the camera" meaning "when they zoomed in with the camera."
  
  
• "Oh, this is going to be not fresh!" meaning "Oh this is not going to be sweet!" referring to his drink of juice as there was only a bit of juice left to make a drink with.
  
  
• "I have finished my tea".......meaning......"I have finished my lunch"
  
  
• "I beated James"......meaning......"I beat James"
  
  
• When getting dressed.... "Why have you given me some socks? Am I going out to dinner!"
  
  "When I was coming on the way over....Fell over!".......meaning......."when I was coming home I fell over"
  
  
• "The bomb was going to blew up the whole entire world".......meaning, "blow up". Also interesting is that he has been overusing the phrase "whole entire world". He can pick up a new word or phrase and overuse it. You can always tell when he has learnt a new word!!
  
  
• "I’m nearly there till the end".......meaning...... "I’ve nearly finished"
  
  
• "you don’t have to do it now, you can get me to do it a bit earlier"........meaning........"I don’t have to do it now, you can get me to do it a bit later"
  
  
• "Shall I get dressed?".........meaning........ "undressed"
  
  
• "YES!! Killed him , no more difficults".....meaning......"no more difficult ones!" referring to his playstation game.
  
  
• ."Yours has came out of it!".....meaning....... "Yours has come out of it!"
  
  
• "WHOA!! That is so cheating!".......meaning........"whoa that is cheating!"
  
  
• "If she wants her to come"......meaning........ "If she wants him to come"
  
  
• "I was nearly to the end!"......meaning........"I was nearly at the end"
  
  
• His sister said, "Grown ups can do anything can’t they Mum?" He replied quite crossly, "No they can’t, grown ups can’t think you can just die!"
  
  
• "Thanks a lot, you’ve made myself to start again!".......meaning.........." Thanks a lot, you’ve made me have to start again!"
  
  
• "I’m hungry still".......meaning........"I’m still hungry"
  
  
• "She might be not working today"......meaning......."She might not be working today."
  
  
• "She’s got wet on the controllers".......meaning........"She’s got water on the remote controls"
  
  
• "You’ve been on there till morning!".....meaning......"You’ve been on there all morning!"
  
  
• "I’ll keep playing it till I’m 7, 8 and 9, as older you get the brainiest you get"........meaning......"I’ll keep playing it till I’m 9 years old as the older you get the brainier you get"
  
  
• "Oh no! There’s some two here!"......meaning......."Oh no there’s two here/or there’s some here".....used both words.
  
  
• "I’ve heard it 4 days yesterday"......meaning........."I’ve heard it 4 times yesterday"
  
  
• "She's got much than me"........meaning.........She's got more than me"
  
  
• "Dan was left on hisself"........meaning....."Dan was left on his own"
  
  
• "Mum, how many months?.....meaning..... ..”How many months are there in a year?".......then when I answered his question he said......"How many years are there?"
  
  
• "I’ve been starving for all the time".......meaning......"I’ve been hungry for a while"
  
  
• Me to my son........."Stop shouting at me or you will be in trouble".... He replied...."No you won’t cause I can run away"........ meaning......"No I won’t cause I can run away"
  
  
• "I can’t go to school now because I’m always better".........meaning..........."I don’t have to go back to school now I’m better do I?"
  
  
• "I wrote for that down on my list".........meaning........"I asked for that on my (xmas) list/I wrote that down on my (xmas) list"
  
  
• "I’m hungry!"..... I replied...."Go and get a banana."......He said,(not sure if this was his attempts at humour, or semantic substitution)........"I’m not a geese!!"
  
  
• "It's not much big"........meaning......."it's not very deep."
  
  
• "Why can't be cats be like bigger, Sly's only a bit small!"

To listen to a sample of his speech now at almost 8 years old, please click

HERE - 8 YEARS OLD

File size is 0.90mb, copyrighted, and must not be reproduced without permission of the owner of this site

You can see from this sample that some good progress has been made between the ages of 5-8 years old. I think it highlights the fact that although his speech is very clear and his language sounds age appropriate to the casual listener, if you listen carefully you can hear examples of his...............

Incorrect word endings, ie SUPEREST and BEATED.

False starts, ie "and i just can't...I just beated Tiny Tiger..."

Word finding difficulties, ie CASTLE

Semantic substitutions, ie "world of it" for "level of it", "race player" for "racing driver" and "Tiny Area for Tiny Arena"

Slight topic difficulties ie, not getting to the point, going off at a tangent slightly from what he is starting to talk about.

Basically it highlights a general difficulty in trying to express his thoughts and ideas clearly.

It is definately a case of pragmatics, knowing what to say and how to say it!



To listen to a sample of his speech now at ten years old, please click

HERE - TEN YEARS OLD

File size is1.33mb, copyrighted, and must not be reproduced without permission of the owner of this site

This sample has been added recently to show the continuing improvements with my son's language and communication skills. Although you can hear a tense error, some word finding difficulty and a presupposition, ie assuming beforehand that I have knowledge of the wrestling game and not answering my question leading me to ask for clarification, it does show that great progress can be made with good support.

Next you will see some language samples from an 8 year old boy diagnosed with SPD and later Aspergers Syndrome. (This sample has been donated to the site and is copyrighted and should not be reproduced without permission of its owner.

Examples of Communication Difficulties

I have tried to record some ‘natural’ instances of Alex’s difficulties with communication, particularly speech. Consonant blends at the beginning of words have improved noticeably during this time. What I have recorded misses out much of the most unintelligible speech. I found this too difficult to remember long enough to transcribe it. I also tended to be struggling to make sense of what he was saying rather than concentrating on memorising it at the time. It was all recorded as soon after the event as possible.

Recorded during October

Missing consonants included

Wap for swap
Pider for spider
Not for snot
Cab for scab
Nake for snake

Also
Singles for signals. Out of the blue, Alex commented “Mummy, my singles box is quite like real life”
Fwee for three
Noice for nice
Loike for like

Note : my records at this time were only of single words. At this time I didn’t record longer phrases as I did later.

Recorded during December

It’s got crumbs of balls (meaning lots)
The jelly had pieces of orange. I confused it. (Meaning I refused it)
When you have done this, you can have a piece of Jane’s birthday cake
Is it war yet?
What do you mean?
I thought it might be war
Did he mean ‘raw’ here? He had eaten a piece the day before. Note Jan. Alex used ‘war’ to mean ‘raw’

Mummy, I’m doing Jay his tack!
???
Mummy, I’m doing Jay his tacking
???
Mummy, I’m doing Jay his tacking, on it!
I had no idea what he could be talking about.

Recorded during January

Tun it of (pointing) light of that light!
(Having trouble taking lid off jam pot..)
I can tell this isn’t being used for very long, cos it isn’t very har

The thing that holds toast (toast rack – this is a very common type of ‘round the houses’ phrase. Often there are several in his speech making it difficult to decode and work out what he is talking about.

Mummy…(totally incomprehensible)…ketchup.!
???
Mummy, ketchup. When I first get room for it, I need it. (ie when I have room on the plate for ketchup I want some)

21/1Speech very unclear all day. On way to school approx. half words incomprehensible. On return journey lots of repetition and unfinished words. Next day slightly better.

Mummy, you’ve done it..Mummy you’ve done it making two of the southern fried chickens get more than their share!
I think this referred to my putting ketchup on pieces of chicken, with some pieces having more than others

Before he came meaning ‘before he went’. Common type of mistake.

Climbs into bed, wrapping duvet around him closely…
I’m trying to cool down
Why are you snuggling under the duvet?
It’s the best way to cool down
Are you hot?
No. Wraps duvet closer and explains he is trying to get rid of the moving air.
(This is the only time I have managed to record Alex’s frequent confusion over being hot and so needing to get cooler or being cold so needing to get warmer. I think it is a problem with language, but have wondered whether it could be a sensory issue. He can accurately say whether something is hot or cold.)

I aren’t..Can I… can I just… can I play… can I just play (incomprehensible word) with Diater? Lots of incomp..speech that day. Sometimes whole sentences, sometimes just words or phrases unintelligible and rest of sentence clear. This is quite common, and almost impossible for me to record.

Loike for ‘like’. This is less frequent than during October.

I only? One can opener cos thebovy cos the can opener…soon as the train has stopped our time’s up. I tried to get can opener out of the melee, but I can’t…Can openers A! I can’t, I managed to defend, my opponent managed to get somewhere else, by beating me. I realised later ‘Canopener’ is the name of a robot in his Robotwars computer game.

At the moment it wobbles..it speed…it actuly wobbles at speedown.

Time to get our skates on!
What are skates?
This coathanger has been mended (holding a paperclip)
Takeover instead of ’overtake’

Recorded during February

(On football) you’re going for your opponents goal keepers goal…and then …you get the ball in…and……..
That’s it.
They backed…backed me
???
They back backed blocked me
Alex was explaining how he had tried to persuade an older child they had got him the wrong school reading book. The child wouldn’t accept it was the wrong book.

We had been taking turns to make up silly maths problems to reinforce numeracy work for the previous 30 minutes, and enjoying this. My latest problem was that I had made 20 biscuits, and at lunchtime Daddy and I ate 6 each. How many were left for Alex and Jane? (answered correctly). How many was there for Alex? (answered correctly). Then I noticed he was waiting expectantly and asked whether he thought I had really made the biscuits. He answered ‘yes’. Ooops!

We also have an old joke (since toddlerdom) that he is tasty and I would like to eat him. Every time Alex laughs, but asks whether I am joking. This time I said ‘No’. He had to ask again Mummy you won’t really eat me will you?
Alex often needs reassurance over such often repeated jokes, although he enjoys them greatly. I try to very gently introduce such deliberate teasing so that he learns people are not always literal.

Daddy have you tracked down Jane already?
???
Have you beaten her at draughts?
Is her piano younger than this?
Whose piano?
The one that Uncle Peter is married to
(ie Suzanne whose name had been mentioned about 2 sentences before and Alex has known for 3 years
“That one” or “The one” is commonly used when he can’t remember or doesn’t know a name

I’ll reput them (meaning I’ll put them back)

Fwee or free for three repeatedly
Afwaid for afraid
Dat for that
Chat for track
Bernoculay for monopoly
I tried to get him to enunciate ‘f’ and ‘th’ after me but he couldn’t separate them

..school library books don’t have a very nice taste..
??? repeated this 3 times
Alex, do you EAT school library books?
..Oh! ….not taste.. (he meant he didn’t like them much)

The throat clearing/grunting noises tend to ebb and flow over time. When he is making them, he may grunt after every word, or at the end of a phrase or sentence. Sometimes his speech is preceded by a series of grunts. The effect is quite similar to a bad stammer. At its worst, there may be one word followed by 3-6 grunts, then another word followed by more grunts etc.