Re: How did your apraxic child's speech develop?? (M)

[Guest guest]

Becky: My name is Patti and I have a son who has been diagnosed as " mild

apraxia. " He will be 4 in Dec. Here's his history. He was a good baby but a

quiet baby. Didn't babble much. Met all development milestones on time.

Walked at 12 months.

I always felt something was up since he was not speaking like my oldest son.

He'd say words, never say them again. At 2 years of age he said about 10

words and didn't even say my name.

I got him evaluated through early intervention and he received speech 1x per

week and o/t 1 time per week. He has been in special ed preschool since

December. He can speak in sentences. His clarity is poor.

Also, he does not " converse " like a regular child his age. But, he has

come so far that I'm sure he'll be ok. I know it will be a long road.

We started him on ProEFA almost 3 weeks ago. No improvement yet but we are

hoping.

If you ever have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.

Patti (mom to ).

[Guest guest]

Hi Becky and all,

Re: my now 31 month old son's speech developement.

At about 15 months he started to loose the 8 or so words that he had. He gained

one or two after that, kept them for a few months and lost those too. By 24

months he could only say ma, ga (for dad) and go, although for a few months

before he would utter a word once and you would never hear it again. He started

ST at 24 months (having been diagnosed with oral and verbal apraxia) and about

three weeks after therapy started, I started him on one capsule/day of ProEfa.

Within about three days, I noticed his concentration improved (I never thought

he had a concentration problem to begin with!), then slowly over the next three

months he gained some sounds (like da). Then over a period of three weeks, he

had some really amazing surges. He started to repeat words I would say (before

if you asked him to repeat something he would look at you blankly or if I was

lucky, try. But it was gibberish) all the time and then he started to put two

words together on this own and then at that third week,

whole sentences. I kept going to my ST appointments saying " your never going to

believe this .... " . Now at 31 months he has a huge vocabulary and says long

sentences on his own. His clarity has improved tremendously and I can understand

him about 80% of the time. Strangers can maybe 25% of the time. However, with

his long sentences, he leaves off the ends of words all the time and he does

loose sounds only to regain them later. He will also substitute consonants that

he has known, with other incorrect ones. But when we work on them they seem to

come back. My SLP told me that this is the longest part of the therapy, having

to refine his sounds. I think in looking at the whole picture, for every three

steps forward, he only takes one backwards and is therefore, on the whole,

improving alot.

I have no relatives, at this point, who have apraxia.

Best of Luck,

Anita

zoinks_42642 <rdhughes@...> wrote:

Hello,

Are there any sites that give case histories of apraxic children? I

have found one here and there, but I'm interested in reading about

many children.

I was wondering if others would care to post specifics about their

children's speech development. Any and all details about your child

would be appreciated.

I'm just interested in this as a mom of an apraxic 25 month old---

this isn't for any official research.

Oh and one more thing, do any of you have any other family members

with apraxia? My son's 3rd cousin had apraxia.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

Becky & Jaylon River (25 months)

[Guest guest]

Hi Becky

My son is now 2yrs 9mths. He has been diagonsed as possibly having

apraxia (most likely). He was always a fussy baby and got very

overwhelmed by strangers or being in a room full of people. Change

was/is very difficult for him. Physically, he reached every milestone

on time or before time. He had about 10 words at 18mths, by the time

he was two he could only say mama. He even stopped saying dada. His

mood swings increased in intensity and he seemed to over react to

everything. He started ST about 4 mths ago once a week, this week

it's been increased to twice a week. He also gets OT. He has

recently started to say words. Before, if I asked him to say a word,

he would scream at me and sometimes went into a full blown temper

tantrum. We went to behavioural therapy which helped us a parents to

understand him and give him the support he needs. We bought the

signing time videos and are using Sign Language as our primary means

to communicate. I found that by giving him another means of

communication other than speech (we also use pictures) it seemed to

take the pressure off and decreased his frustrations. Now that he can

communicate using signs, he seems to be advancing more with his

speech. he can say, mama, dada, juice, do for Dora the Explorer. His

ST even got him to say a sentence during his last session. The first

2 mths of ST didn't seem to be improving his speech, however these

last 2 mths we've seen huge improvemnts, mainly his willingness to

try. His words are not complete but his getting better each week. I

know one day he'll be able to talk to me but until then we SIGN!!!!!

Best Wishes

Toni

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

They sound very alike. Conor imitates what he sees on the television

and videos also. We recently bought the 3rd signing time dvd, there's

a song on it called the Silly Pizza Song. It's all about silly pizza

toppings - the children on the video sign to the song. To my

amazement, after watching it twice, Conor started imitating all the

signs - the song is quite fast so I was amazed to see he keep up with

it. He giggles out loud while he watches it. We've recently started

having conversations in signs which I treasure. He is also in daycare

and I think it benefits him very much. Keep me posted on how your

son's speech is comming along.