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Special Needs
mommyof4boys
member
Update to the dysarthria conversation with the SLP from school
mommyof4boys
member
The SLP said Chris does indeed have all three things going on. She said the phonological disorder, Apraxia, and dysarthria all fit because Chris has many articulation errors (The phonological disorder), Apraxia (issues with his overall motor planning for his speech) and Dysarthria (low motor tone, slurred speech pattern, robotic speech pattern, etc). I guess my little man is more unique than we thought 
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Re: Update to the dysarthria conversation with the SLP from school
Hi there. Don't know your backstory (don't Bump often), but I wanted to say that my DD also has apraxia and dysarthria (and hypotonia... but maybe the dysarthria is a result of the hypotonia? It's all so confusing...) My nephew has also been diagnosed with both, amongst other disorders. I have heard that those two supposedly often occur together, although I think this is debatable to some... it seems that one is often misdiagnosed as the other, and at times I even wonder if my DD really has dysarthria. I wonder, could her symptoms of dysarthria actually just be a result of the weak core strength that comes with apraxia??? I'll probably never know for sure.
As for the phonological disorder, though, I wanted to point out that articulation errors are the main trait of apraxia, so I'm wondering why your SLP says *that* is the reason he has a phonological disorder. From my understanding, a child can have articulation errors as the symptom of a phonological disorder, but if he/she has other characteristics of apraxia (i.e. lack of motor planning, groping, inconsistent errors), then that is the underlying cause. I'm just genuinely curious about the diagnosis, as I'm always trying to learn more about my own DD's speech.
Christopher has a genetic syndrome called 16p11.2 duplication. The easiest way to explain it is his small part to his 16th chromosome has a small section duplicated. It is on the 11.2 portion of the chromosome. Each chromosome is divided into a q portion and a p portion and numbered sections as well. It is a fairly new syndrome because the technology needed to find it. He also has autism and a few other issues. The syndrome itself is associated with autism; about 80% of kids with a 16th chromosomal issue are on the spectrum. It is also associated with expressive language delays and a few other issues as well
We were told the dysarthria is characteristic of his "Eeyore-like speech"; he is slow and slurred most of the time. He has a robotic like characteristic to it as well. Chris' overall tone is quite low and it affects his oral tone as well. The SLP did some sort of assessment to see where things were this fall after we mentioned he still uses a sippy cup. As an infant it took us over 10 bottle types to get the right one. This was after he lost about 2 lbs while I was trying to nurse him. He was a NICU baby and our ped was doing weight checks on him. He came home at 1 week old and by 3 weeks old he dropped down to a bit less than 4 lbs. They asked me to pump and bottle feed trying to figure out what was going on but pumping didn't work out. I was getting an ounce a day if I was lucky. I had to switch to formula
The SLP said his oral tone was about a 20% level of something. I don't recall what the 20% meant. Honestly, up until Monday I never heard of dysarthria! I'm still trying to figure out myself
From what I understand in our case the apraxia is his brain signals getting lost in translation and the dysarthria is what he does say is all slurred. I know my 6 year old has Apraxia as well and his phonological issues also have the inability to manipulate the sounds. I know his long list of labels doesn't include a phonological disorder but more phonological awareness issues. He does have a list of about 20-30 sounds he misarticulates but the felt it was due to his apraxia and the phonemic awareness issues. He genuinely thinks that the letter "t" for example sounds like /d/.
I am a special ed teacher/reading specialist and am working hard to help him with this. My thesis was on phonemic awareness. I did a lot of research into how to build up the phonemic awareness in a child with a language based special need. Ironically now almost 3 I'm putting it to use.
Thanks for the reply! Your detailed explanation makes much more sense to me now about how your DS really does have all 3 things going on. His dysarthria sounds much more characteristic, unlike my DD's diagnosis... I sort of think she really has much more of a pure verbal apraxia going on. That is interesting that your 6 yo has apraxia as well. How is his speech now?
Wanna hear something really ironic? I'm a reading specialist, too! I was *just* thinking in the car this morning about how I'm so thankful for my education in phonetics/language because of how it helps me better understand how to help DD.
Actually all three of my younger kids have apraxia. I strongly feel all three have the same genetic syndrome. Our geneticist strongly agrees that Matthew looks and acts like he has it. One of our twins started speech at age 3 and his only issue now is grammar. He will call everyone "her" or "she" and we're working on tenses.With Jon, he's still jumbled and difficult to understand. He started speech at 4 years and 8 months after a year of fighting with the school. We had him tested around age 3 and he didn't qualify; they felt he would outgrow his articulation issues. We put him in a preschool inclusion as a typical peer knowing the teacher would see him and ask to have him tested. Within 6 weeks of him starting at a bit over 4 we were in talking about him being tested.
How funny that you are a reading specialist! I completely "get" it about the background being helpful.