- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Special Needs
Apraxia -- please come in for those who can give some info. Thanks.
Hello. My friend's son who is 2 years, 9 months is very speech delayed with about 50 "words" and no vowel sounds except for ahhh. He was evaluated and has so far has 2 sessions with the SP. His mom is using insurance for now until all the evals are done to go through the school district and the SP is going to try and push for 3 days. She said she cannot and will not make a formal diagnoses now because it's early but he is so far showing the signs of apraxia. If any of you have children with this disorder, at what age were the diagnosed and when did they start to talk? Thank you so much. I know she is upset but I told her she is doing the best she can do now by getting him help but she blames herself. I remember when my first was not talking as he was a late talker and I got him help (nothing wrong, just late and fine now) but I remember reading about apraxia and would diagnose him myself and make myself crazy and read some uneasy info about it and now she is doing the same but this may be real for her. Thank you for listening.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Apraxia -- please come in for those who can give some info. Thanks.
Hi! It sounds like your friend has a good advocate in their SLP. I can't comment on the specifics of her son, but I can talk a little about apraxia.
I did a student clinical at a clinic that diagnosed every child who walked through the door as being apraxic. It was maddening. I dealt with it by doing a TON of journal research on apraxia to keep myself from drinking their Kool-Aid. It is something that therapists LOVE to diagnose, and the truly informed ones know to wait.
I might tell a client (like your friend heard) that I see signs of apraxia, but it is something that should not (except possibly in extremely severe cases) be diagnosed until much older. I would personally say 5 at the least, many say older. Until then, it can just be a different type of difficult speech issue that can work itself out.
To me, at this age, no matter what speech disorder you are looking at, treatment is much more based on the specific child's needs and strengths rather than a particular label. Therapy is customized whether we know the name or not (typically not). I have given parents information on apraxia that I personally edited and made notes on to help them understand the particular signs and manifestations of what I'm seeing, but to steer them away from the witchcraft.
Many people find helpful info online, but the apraxia info out there can be extremely misleading (plenty of people would love to treat your 1-year-old, and make a lot of money doing so), scary (typically parents find testimonials of the most severe cases), and unresearched.
For example, Nancy Kaufman, apraxia guru, operator of the Kaufman apraxia center, worldwide seller of apraxia courses and materials, who runs many of the popular apraxia websites (sometimes you have to really hunt to realize it's her) has NEVER done ANY RESEARCH WHATSOEVER that I could find in any journal available as of 2007. She was running a booming business at the time, so I doubt much has changed. I found her master's thesis published in an Australian teachers' journal 20 years earlier. That's it. Similarly, her sites make many factual claims with no research citations whatsoever. Even her therapy materials and manuals have no citations. This woman makes insane amounts of money selling her program for toddlers, and has never done research or allowed research to be done on her methods. Why should she? It could only hurt business.
It sounds like your friend has good help giving good advice. I would suggest not getting entrenched in apraxia this early unless qualified, knowledgeable IMPARTIAL experts see a strong need for it. I prefer to use the information I get about the child's specific characteristics, keep in mind that motor planning may be a problem, and move from there with my therapy plan.
I agree with a lot of what the above posted, My son was dx with severe Apraxia of Speech at 2.9. He was basically non-verbal at the time. We had gone through EI who suggested we look further into Trevor's issues. We worked with a fantastic SLP who first taught Trev some signs to lesson his frustration. We continued with private speech therapy until he was accepted into the public school system.
This is where the dx became helpful. Due to his dx, our research and supporting documents and an excellent educational advocate, Trev received intensive therapy. We were able to get the school to cover speech services through the summer also. He has made an astonishing amount of progress; so much so that of he did not have the Apraxia dx, he would not qualify for speech therapy.
I find the school professionals focus on his dx, rather than his true needs. They put generalizations into his IEP because this is what the large city school district does with all kids who have this dx. We fight with them to put goals, objectives, and accommodations that are appropriate for him.
At this point the dx is in question. I have been told that he has made too much progress for a child with Apraxia. I have become less dx driven and more service driven. The services he is receiving have benefitted him and that is all that matter to me.
My blog (address in sig.) is all about our journey.
DS was originally diagnosed with Apraxia. But after a lot of exercises and muscle toning strength in his mouth he started talking and was changed to dispraxia.
I have been told the difference is Apraxia is the LACK of words. Dispraxia is the ability to retreive the words and say them correctly.
DS SLP only diagnosed him with Apraxia after seeing him for 6 months. Then a few months later changed it to dispraxia. After a month she said she thought it was apraxia and did start to give me exercises for him. Blowing cotton balls, party favors, whistles, etc.. And when those started to help him talk she said it was definitely apraxia.
At 2, DS has 3 words we heard about 2-3 times a MONTH. At 2.9 he had about 30-40 single words. Around 2.10 is when he combined words.
At 2.11 he was evaluated by the school and I was told he needed SPED 4 days a week with intensive therapy. I decided to ONLY do speech. Which has worked out. DS has hundreds of words and speaks in full sentences now at just past 3.
I put him on an Omega-3 chewable vitamin and that helps TREMENDOUSLY!!! I would recommend that to your friend immediately. I can tell if we skip it for a few days due to rush time in the morning.
He still has problems retrieving words to have a conversation. However his random talking is very good. His speech therapist is working on 2 things. Remembering words to answer questions, and then clarifying his speech. For example, he does not have an N. And if the N is in the word at all the entire word is incomprehensible. So the word bean. Simple enough, but he can not move his mouth from the long E to the N.
Words will come. She needs to have hope. It is hard. I had been asked SO many times if my son was "slow" or mentally retarded due to his lack of speech. so difficult..
My DS was dx with an expressive speech delay and apraxia at 20 months. We have him see a SLP 2x weekly since then.
My Pedi disagrees with the dx, so now I'm looking into a foral eval being done by a developmental pedi.