Class Makes Speech Therapy Child’s Play

Four-year-old Matthew Guadagno of Northridge sat in an elementary school classroom Tuesday carefully drawing a flag on a sheet of paper.

“What have you got there?” asked Nanci Mancinelly, his teacher.

“It’s a fwag,” Matthew answered.

“No, that’s f-l-a-g,” Mancinelly enunciated slowly, guiding Matthew’s eyes to look directly at her so he could see how the word is formed.

“Fw-l-a-g,” Matthew repeated, his tongue barely able to roll out the “l” Mancinelly called for.

“Good, Matthew,” his mother, Maria Guadagno, said.

“OK, everyone now draw something that f-l-o-a-t-s,” Mancinelly instructed.

And the children began to draw.

As part of a biweekly speech therapy class taught at Granada Hills Elementary School, Matthew and 13 other San Fernando Valley 4- and 5-year-olds with severe speech impediments were practicing to blend their consonants through a series of exercises and games played with their parents.

The class concentrates on helping the children remember how to pronounce what to them are complicated sounds by incorporating them into play situations.

“Some of these kids have suffered from inner ear infections, a series of neurological disorders or birth trauma,” said Mancinelly. “Their muscles are not developed enough to produce some sound combinations. We’re trying to make exercising those muscles more fun.”

Along with fellow Los Angeles Unified School District speech pathologist Jeanne Piercy, Mancinelly developed the hourlong class in 1993 as a deviation from most other speech therapy sessions, which force speech-impaired children to simply repeat a catalogue of sounds over and over again.

By bringing the parents into class activities, the two teachers said, the children are more comfortable in their learning environment and also stand a better chance of remembering what they are taught.

“We depend on the parents tremendously to keep working with them,” Piercy said.

“They know exactly what we are doing and can come to us with their specific concerns,” added Mancinelly.

To the parents, such an open class environment has resulted in remarkable progress for their children. After years of watching their sons and daughters withdraw into intense shyness or clench their fists in frustration at not being understood by others, the parents eagerly drive to Granada Hills from throughout the San Fernando Valley to participate in the class.

“We’ll be driving around and she’ll pronounce the names to everything she sees,” said Lynn Piper of her 5-year-old daughter Kindall. “She used to be shy. Her personality has completely changed.”

Rhonda Setty, whose 4-year-old daughter, Shelby, used to attack those who couldn’t understand her, said positive changes in her daughter’s personality were brought on by the class, which has taught her to communicate.

“I thought she had a temper problem,” she said, watching Shelby giggle with the other children. “But one day she turned to me and said: ‘Mommy, I’m not mad at you anymore. You can understand me.’ ”