Speech Apraxia?

tazluvr

I posted this on the toddler board, then realized this board was here...

My son is 21 months and has been working with early intervention for about 4 months because he had no words at 17 months and the pedi recommended I call EI. After working with EI, he now says mama, dada and done clearly. And he can say his vowels clearly. Everything else is "dah" or signing (which he does very well).Yesterday, his therapist shared concerns that she thinks he's laboring to try to get words out. She thinks he KNOWS the words, just can get them out. There's a condition called apraxia, and since she mentioned that, I've been really worried. We are going to have him evaluated by a speech therapist asap. If your child had a speech delay, how did you know it was just a delay and not some neurological disorder? He will try to imitate words, but they don't sound a thing like real word. Is that normal toddler babble or should "his words" at least sound a little like the "real words" at this point? 

I know this is probably an impossible question, but I'm just upset right now...  

lujain

My 18-month-old has a severe speech delay and I'm worried about apraxia as well.  There's a post a little further down the page called If your kid has apraxia . . . that talks about when kids were diagnosed. 

I'm reading The Late Talker by Marilyn Agin et al.  Page 37 has a list of signs of apraxia.  My DD's receptive language is much better than her expressive language.  She only says one vowel sound and a handful of consonants.  She has hypotonia, which is a neurological soft sign of apraxia. 

I've been reading www.apraxia-kids.org, and it seems that usually children can't be diagnosed before age 2 or 3.  There is also an apraxia-specific message board on www.babycenter.com

 

supermom83

I know exactly how you're feeling right now.  My son was 18 months with no words, and I took him to get evaluated by several people and got him into speech therapy at 20 months. I had always suspected Apraxia because I saw that he understood everything that was being said but couldn't say it himself. He also did not repeat any words we said to him and when he tired is sounded nothing like what we were saying, and he would have his own little babbling language that was not understood by anyone. I kept asking the predication, the developmental pediatrician, the speech therapists that did his evaluation, if they thought he had Apraxia, and they were ALL very non-committal and said he only has a speech delay. I never really believed it. 

His progress with regular speech therapy was not going as well as I had hoped, so I decided to get a second opinion and sought a PROMPT certified therapist to get an evaluation from, and low and behold she confirmed what I was suspecting this whole time, Ben has Apraxia. I was upset when I officially got the diagnosis, yet also super relieved to finally know what was going on and starting him on the right therapy. I have religiously kept a log of all the words Ben says, and when he says them and I know exactly when a new word was added. Ben is now 26 months old. When he started regular speech therapy he was saying Zero words. With four months of regular speech therapy he said 4 words, and then we started him with PROMPT therapy, and within a month...yes, only 4 weeks, Ben is now saying 18 word! The PROMPT therapy has helped him immensely because it is the right kind of therapy for him. I couldn't believe how quickly he was picking things up. He now also tries to imitate words and repeat them, he can say all the vowels and imitate sounds. It's amazing....simply night and day. 

Now I'm not sure if your son has Apraxia or not, but if he does, the best thing you could do for him would be to find him the right therapist and the right kind of therapy. It does make a world of a difference. Hopefully your son only has a speech delay, but if not, know that there are plenty of very qualified specialist out there that could give him excellent therapy to help him and get him on track speech wise....just imagine your son picking up 18 words in one month like Ben did! Pushing and advocating for my son was the best thing I have ever done. I am proud that I didn't listen to my family who kept insisting "he was just a late talker and he'll grow out of it" or the pediatricians who thought "sometimes boys just talk late."  I went with my gut and now he's flourishing. 

Good luck with everything! If you ever have any questions just PM me )