Talk to me about apraxia

Amamsneb

Hi all...sorry for being MIA lately. We've been megabusy with B'a therapy schedule. He's 2.5, DX autism. He gets OT speech and we're just starting ABA.

Okay, onto the point. B's SLP, who we love, is suggesting that he may have apraxia, given that we're hearing a fair amount of language when he's not thinking about it, but when asked to intentionally form words or signs, he struggles, gets frustrated, and bites working on this wih ABA. He's saying words like shadow, or phrases like all done get up when he wants to get out of his crib in the morning.

WDYT? And is there something we should do to confirm that this is part of what's going on with him? Or, given that the SLP will do the same things regardless of the specific diagnosis, will it matter, particularly as we're headed to his first transition meeting next Thursday?

TIA, ladies!

JenGK

Both of my boys have apraxia.  There is some controversy about diagnosing it before age 3, but both of my boys received the diagnosis early on.  It has provern accurate with my 5 year old, and I feel confident that it is with my 2.5 year old.  The go-to therapy for apraxia is PROMPT, which involves the SLP using her hands on your child's face to show him how to position his mouth to form sounds.  Also, the clinical recommendation for apraxia is more one-on-one therapy each week (I think the minimum recommendation is 2 hours).  Zachary gets 2 hours of private, plus 1.5 hours in school.  Having an apraxia diagnosis helped us get more school hours.

Given this, I'd ask your SLP is she is PROMPT-certified, and whether she is using this type of therapy with your son.  If not, you might consider finding a local PROMPT specialist and having an evaluation done.  They might suggest waiting until he is a bit older, but it cannot hurt.

Amamsneb

Sadly, our SLP is not PROMPT certified, and it's almost imp

Amamsneb

Sadly, our SLP is not PROMPT certified, and it's almost impossible to find someone who is in this state FL. We are looking at a possible move, but we ahave to find DH a job first, and b have to do a lot of research into where the best place to live would be.

Thanks for responding!