Guest guest Posted July 7, 2004 Report Share Posted July 7, 2004 Hi, My 2 year old daughter has been diagnosed with apraxia. She has been seen by a developmental peditrician and is going through speech therapy (for a little over a month now). She has an appointment in 2 weeks w/ OT for poss sensory issues. I am still confused about all of this it is a lot to process. I have so many questions. My husband is in denial. My 4 year old wants to know why I love her sister more (because she takes so much more time). We are learning simple sign language and working on communication boards. If there is anything I am missing please give me some advice. I am open to anything. I have gone to some websites but there isn't too much on childhood apraxia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 I think we were all in the same boat. Before Hope's neurologist said " verbal apraxia " I had never heard of such a thing. Once I started doing a lot of reading on it and talking to her speech therapist, then I started noticing all the little things that I hadn't before. Her not talking was obvious, but not being able to pucker her lips was something I didnt notice before. Of course there are a lot of things I didnt notice before, which is why when the child developmental unit said that other A word (autism) I was blindsided. There was so much I wrote off to her being frustrated or shy or self-conscious about how she talks that I didnt add it all up. Everyone else in the family kind of suspected, but they were afraid to say anything. Except my mom. she mentioned it a few times and no one had suggested it to me, so I said no that's not it. She's just one of the kids where the two overlap. Toni Wells Online Craft Store Now taking quilt orders for guaranteed Christmas delivery http://designs.merlins-avalon.com [ ] Re: new to apraxia I know how you feel!!!! I had never heard of apraxia before my son's diagnosis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 Thank you so much for responding. I'm glad to know that I am not alone. My 4 year old was speaking complete sentences at a little over a year and you could understand everything. She could do picture flash cards at 9 months. I kept telling my peditricain that something was wrong with and he would say you know that you can't compare children, let's wait till she is 2 then we will start worring. After that I felt a little better till I saw the comercial for Early Steps. I called the number and they said I should have called them at 18 months. I have been very happy with the program so far. All my daughter can say is " a my " Like I said we are working with sign language so we can communicate. It breaks my heart when she tells me I Love You!!! I know that it will get better. I just wish she could talk to me. We both get so frustrated when we can't figure out what she wants. She has gotten to where she will hit or pinch if you don't understand her. Does your oldest have any sensory issues? Mine doesn't like water ( we haave to take a bath together),she doesn't chew her food she swallows whole, doesn't like to be dirty. I had her evaluated for Autisim but that wasn't the case. She scored poorly in the speech and change ability of the test. The Dr. thought it was because of the Apraxia though. She will re-eval in the spring before she starts pre-school. Thank you again for listening to me. If I can be of any help to you please e-mail me. Thanks, Sheri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2004 Report Share Posted July 8, 2004 Hi, Sheri- You're in the right place! Probably everyone on this email line can relate to what you, your dh, and your children are going through. A lot of the kids on this line have sensory issues or other issues along with the verbal/oral apraxia so this is a good place to get suggestions and advice on your situation. It's great that you have started the speech therapy - how often does your daughter go and how long are the sessions? Have you considered starting her on fish oil supplements? I would venture to guess that most of the people on this line are using ProEFA or something similar - it provide DHA, EPA, and GLA - all essential fatty acids that have been shown to help kids with communication disorders (as well as other things - fish oil is really good for cardio issues and many other things!). ProEFA can be purchased online from a variety of places - Nordic Naturals is one common place - if you go to the NN website, you can find a store near you that sells its product Complete Omega (the general public version of ProEFA-ProEFA has to be purchased through Nordic). It's great that you are going for an OT eval for sensory issues - many times sensory issues play a huge part in speech issues and they can go hand-in-hand (although not all the time). Does your daughter have any oral defensiveness or tactile defensiveness? Is she overly sensitive to sounds, smells, lights? Those are the kinds of things the OT eval will look at. Is the speech person finding any oral weakness that would require oral stimulation/muscle exercises along with the speech therapy? These are just some questions that you might want to look into if you haven't already - there are many more that I'm sure people online will toss out to you. As for your dh being in denial - very common. It's very difficult to get a diagnosis about your child after you have developed your own dreams and ideas of what your child will be like. The most important thing for you and your dh to remember is that she is your child first - your love is the most important thing you can give her. Her needs and therapies are all second to that in my book. Your love can take many forms - from the cuddles and hugs you have always given her to the tough love it's going to take to keep encouraging her to work hard on the therapies that are coming her way - I wish you great luck with that. You will have moments of deep despair when you don't think she is progressing, then you will have breakthroughs where you will want to jump for joy. What your daughter needs, though, is to see consistency from her parents - consistent love, consistent encouragement, consistent help. As for your other daughter, get her involved! There is no reason why she can't learn sign, there is no reason why she can't help her sister with therapy - make games out of the things you and your daughter are learning at therapy sessions and get your other daughter in on the game. Our daughter also felt left out when we started paying so much attention to Josh and his needs (verbal/oral apraxia, global dyspraxia, hypotonia, dysarthria). Fortunately, she was much older than Josh and we could talk things out. But, we still got her involved with learning sign, helping with therapies, etc. Your daughter's situation is a " whole-family " affair - not just hers. You will get a lot of responses here - it's up to you how you want to take them and what you glean from them. I'll stop now because I know you will be overwhelmed with everything that's coming your way. Keep in touch, keep us up to date! Sherry sheri_coon <madicoon@...> wrote: Hi, My 2 year old daughter has been diagnosed with apraxia. She has been seen by a developmental peditrician and is going through speech therapy (for a little over a month now). She has an appointment in 2 weeks w/ OT for poss sensory issues. I am still confused about all of this it is a lot to process. I have so many questions. My husband is in denial. My 4 year old wants to know why I love her sister more (because she takes so much more time). We are learning simple sign language and working on communication boards. If there is anything I am missing please give me some advice. I am open to anything. I have gone to some websites but there isn't too much on childhood apraxia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 23, 2006 Report Share Posted August 23, 2006 Hi - It's great that your SLPs are both on the same page (though both unclear as to which page that is!!). They're both right in that a dev ped would likely recommend the therapy they're providing. One thing they might be missing is any OT/PT needs - and whether or not you think you need this is really up to you (and your insurance coverage). My son was diagnosed at 2.2. He went through 3.4 years of ST and was discharged at 5.5. He's 8, just started 2nd grade and was just told to " BE QUIET " by his Dad in the other room. It's not easy, but it could be worse....... If you have the coverage, if you have access to a good dev ped, it's not the worst idea since it can illuminate things you didn't see AND it can help with insurance coverage in the future. I have about as great insurance coverage as anyone I've ever heard and I've needed the asst. of our ped and dev ped a few times. Hope this helps - and remember that the earlier you intervene, the better. You're in the game WAY early! good luck! M > > Hi. My son is 2 yrs and 4 months and our SLP told me the other day > (after about 2 months now of working with him twice a week) that she > thinks he has verbal apraxia. We've also had him evaluated by the > state's early intervention and that SLP suspects the same but has > said she's still " on the fence. " Anyway, our SLPs are both treating > him as though he has apraxia even though they both say he doesn't yet > have enough words or imitation to do the test to accurately determine > if apraxia is what's going on or if it's just some sort of > articulation disorder. My son is finally imitating much more often. > He only says beginning sounds though with no consenants on the end. > For instance, Mom is Mama, Ball is ba and water is wawa. My question > is when is it important to have him seen by a developmental > pediatrician? Our SLPs say it's not important since they are already > treating him as if he has the diagnosis. What would the Dev Ped do? > If both the SLPs think its just apraxia, is there any need to do > further testing at this point when he's not even 2 and a half yet? I > also ordered the ProEFA Jr and will start that as soon as it > arrives. 2 pills a day correct? > Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'd love to hear a > success story or two from anyone who's had a child around 2 diagnosed > and has seen great improvements. I need to hear some positive > reinforcement!! Thanks! > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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