New member?Jeanne

[Guest guest]

He doe not repeat things he hears off the TV. When i said he had a

few words I meant like baby words. Ma Ma, DaDA, meme,ba ba mean bye

bye. he says baby. a couple of times i heard him say get down, but

then he never says it again. he`s said ball a couple of times and

then he never says it again. He make some other sounds, but they

arn`t really words. He just repeats them over and over. He covers his

ears alot at certain sounds. I`d like to try auditory integration

therapy. Tina

> Tina,

> It sounds to me like your son has pervasive developmental disorder,

> does he have other issues too? PDD is a high functioning form of

> autism. Does he repeat things that he has heard on tv, video, or

> things you say without knowing what they mean. The difference

> between apraxia and pdd (autism) is that with apraxia, children

> have trouble with wiring of their brains. IE the beginning sounds of

> speech, therefore they don't know how to produce the sounds for words

> etc. In autism the words are already in their brains it is just a

> matter of getting them to say it frequently and get it out.

> Both my kids have different diagnoses. Adam has apraxia and adhd,

> and Josh is pdd. Jeanne

[Guest guest]

Tina none of us of course could know for sure what your son's true

diagnosis is. Since however your son is 10 and only has baby sounds

like " ma " , since he'll say a word and then lose it, and since you

don't know what apraxia is, it's possible he does have apraxia.

Apraxia does not self resolve -one does not " outgrow " apraxia.

Therefore a child with apraxia who is viewed and treated as autistic

for example as your son now is, will not receive appropriate therapy

for apraxia and will remain nonverbal. ABA therapies are not

appropriate and may be detrimental to one who doesn't not require

ABA therapy.

Long term results of two children who were actually

apraxic but misdiagnosed that you may want to read are 's

http://www.cherab.org/news/.html and 's

http://www.cherab.org/news/.html

When you talk about the 8 autistic symptoms he was diagnosed with

in your last post, what are the 8 symptoms? Signs of sensory

integration dysfunction (like holding his ears from noise) for example, are not

signs of autism -they are

signs of sensory integration dysfunction.

In speaking with Dr. Martha Herbert from Harvard

http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/NewFiles_Staff/herbert_martha.html

the " autism checklist " was never meant to be a checklist of " if

a child fits X amount of signs he is autistic " -it was meant as " a

checklist of symptoms that can coexist with autism " .

Have you read The Late Talker book? Do you relate to any parts of

the book for your son.

I really want to help you to help your son find his voice and know

many others here do too. Since it appears you are in Michigan,

Kaufman CCC SLP in Michigan is an advisor to CHERAB and she is just

wonderful. http://www.kidspeech.com/

She is one of the " apraxia gurus " if there is such a thing, and she

doesn't just work with apraxia.

http://www.kidspeech.com/services.html Her technique -the " Kaufman

Technique " of giving apraxic and many other speech and language

impaired children a " motor bridge " to speech is just brilliant-like .

If you are interested in taking your son to please let me know and I will

personally contact her to let her know.

As far as auditory therapies -yes they are wonderful, but it sounds

to me like you first need to determine if your son's diagnosis of PDD NOS

is appropriate and accurate and if he has been receiving appropriate

therapies. If not, find out what the appropriate diagnosis is, and

start a solid base of appropriate speech and possibly occupational

therapies too. Auditory and other multisensory therapies are great

as complimentary therapies together with the traditional.

http://www.speech-express.com/alternative-therapy.html

How is your son is school? What grade is he in and what type of

placement is AI? Is he being taught just " life skills " ? What type

of academic level is he being taught? Does he have friends? What

does he like to do for fun? (swimming, sports, Nintendo etc.)

Please let us know when you have the chance! It's never too late to

find out -and never too late for hope. We are here for you!

=====

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/16/2004 1:06:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

pennington1994@... writes:

The difference

> between apraxia and pdd (autism) is that with apraxia, children

> have trouble with wiring of their brains. IE the beginning sounds of

> speech, therefore they don't know how to produce the sounds for words

> etc. In autism the words are already in their brains it is just a

> matter of getting them to say it frequently and get it out.

Jeanne,

This makes no sense to me at all, does anyone else agree or am I missing

something? Just wondering....As I understood it that Apraxia as is with the

Brain

is unable to plan the next move or sequence, that they know what they want to

say they just can not motor plan their articulates to form the words, but

don't they too have the words already in their brain??? An from what I

understand, Apraxia which is almost always accompanied by DSI and soemtimes

auditory

problems, is like autism/PDD in that respect but that with autism/PDD these

children lack the knowledge of our world and are not trapped in their own, have

behavioural problems. Just because a child with Apraxia repeats things from a

TV

(Echolalia) doesnt mean there is any realy problem unless that child is still

doing it after 6 months to a year, then as I understand it, it might be

considered more than just apraxia. I am so sorry that this is so long and Im

not

trying to cause any harm but I read your post to Tina and I was a little

alarmed that you were speculating about her son but Im not here to judge you

either

I just wanted to get accross what I felt the difference was. I hope Im on the

right track.

Traci

[Guest guest]

,

Can I ask a little more about this statement? I have read both

s and 's statements several times. What amazing kids

(adults... I sound so old calling them kids!).

Are you talking about traditional ABA or any ABA being damaging to a

child with Apraxia? We used a very modified form of ABA which was

more like play. Not fully the floor time method but not

militaristic (word?) at all. If I were an uninformed observer,

Ian's ABA looked like a lot of fun!

Ian is 37 months. Between the ages of 19-26 months I had a private

ABA therapist in our home (12 hrs/week). At that time, our goals

were to get him to 'touch your head', 'clap your hands' ,etc. He

did not imitate physical actions much until the ABA started. Ian

was not even close to being ready to speak at this time so ABA

didn't focus on verbal replies.

At the age of 26 months, autism was ruled out in two separate

evals. Since ABA cost $20/hr, we dropped it to focus more on OT and

ST.

I don't see where the damage of ABA would be for a child like Ian.

He has signs of apraxia but also signs of normal speech

development. He has a few autistic traits but not enough to put him

on the spectrum. He has some sensory defensivenes but not enough to

give him any diagnosis. Notice a frustrating pattern here?

I guess I'd just like a little more info. I'm considering restarting

some kind of ABA in our home but I certainly don't want to sabotage

Ian's progress so far.

Thanks,

Pam

> Therefore a child with apraxia who is viewed and treated as

autistic

> for example as your son now is, will not receive appropriate

therapy

> for apraxia and will remain nonverbal. ABA therapies are not

> appropriate and may be detrimental to one who doesn't not require

> ABA therapy.

>