Word retrieval or speech impairment?

[Guest guest]

Word retrieval may be easy to diagnose in a patient with

Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Disease who doesn't have a speech

impairment. But there is not enough research in preschool or early

elementary school aged verbal disabled children to definitely state

that the child that does not say a word or the right word on command

has word retrieval issues and that the problem instead is not a

speech/motor planning problem. They are different diagnosis and

treatments...and one I believe comes with a greater stigma -word

retrieval. To me saying a preschool child with a speech impairment

has word-retrieval issues is like saying a child with a hearing

impairment has CAPD because he has trouble understanding verbal

commands. I don't care if Dr. Hall did a study with 5

children,,,,to decide that apraxia and word retrieval issues may go

together and this was confirmed by follow up of 2 of those 5

children http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?

_nfpb=true & _pageLabel=RecordDetails & ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED288

283 & ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno & objectId=0900000b80041e57

Below I have a study with about the same amout of children that

disputes this with nonverbal autistic children.

As almost always the ones that stand up for the children are the

parents of those children. Not that long ago all " believed " the

hearing impaired were " dummies " or retarded.

http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurearticles/a/retarded_2.htm

I bet this group could prove what I am saying on anecdotal stories

of following verbal disabled children that are misdiagnosed but

where the parents didn't allow the diagnosis they knew was false and

fought it. Test those children at 9 or 10 -test my son Tanner today

for example. Those who didn't believe in him didn't have a chance

to destroy his confidence or chance to succeed because we didn't let

them. I'm happy to know he proved them wrong but not happy to know

some of you may believe he is somehow different. Tanner is very

typical of most apraxic children in our group.

Not all children with apraxia have phenomenal memories...and not all

have average or above average IQs...it does appear most like Tanner

do however. I too am sorry for those that don't fall into that

group but no matter what there is always hope. I can tell you that

perhaps I am such a strong advocate for not allowing this label to

be placed on a child unless all are 100% sure...and that would be

down the road not preschool age..because some unknowledgeable SLPs

tried to diagnose Tanner with word-retrieval problems and receptive

issues back when he was transitioning to kindergarten and they

were " positive " he " wouldn't make it in mainstream kindergarten "

They were wrong and as many of you know Tanner was a top student and

in the 3rd grade had some bumps due to ignorance but still

maintained a low B average and tested private to have 5th grade

abilities in a number of academic areas including math.

I believe in my heart and have said before and stand by that if I

let " them " who didn't believe in Tanner, lead Tanner's direction,

that 'they' would be right. Where would Tina's son be who all

believed MR if her and her husband didn't stand by him while all

disagreed. Again her example came at a perfect time. Don't feel

guilty if you are one of the parents that has that diagnoses and you

up till this moment believe or believed it...it's never too late to

question it. At preschool age and at the early elementary school

years we help create who they become later in life. Who knows if

it's ever too late -look at who was misdiagnosed all her

life and started to get appropriate therapy and help and started to

talk for the first time at 17 and one of the first things she typed

on the computer was " I am not retarded " .

http://www.cherab.org/news/.html (Hi Robin and !!)

When will reading what I am trying to say really be more harsh when

you have time to still fix it or ten years or more from now? I

appear to have trouble getting my point through, so I just hope some

of you do hear me -because it will at least help save your children

from falling into possible false diagnosis. Here's one study that

may be of interest:

Failure to confirm the word-retrieval problem hypothesis in

facilitated communication

Journal Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Publisher Springer Netherlands

ISSN 0162-3257 (Print) 1573-3432 (Online)

Subject Behavioral Science

Issue Volume 25, Number 6 / December, 1995

DOI 10.1007/BF02178190

Pages 597-610

Online Date Friday, September 30, 2005

Carol A. Vázquez1

(1) Psychology Department, State University of New York, 314

Faculty Tower, 12561-2499 New Paltz, New York

Résumé / Abstract

Two hypotheses were raised and empirically tested to account for the

failure of previous controlled validation studies to find evidence

of literacy in nonspeaking persons with autism using facilitated

communication : (a) The naming tasks used in other studies have

triggered specific word retrieval problems, or anomia, and ( a

perceptual problem, visual agnosia, prevents subjects from

recognizing objects without touching them. Three nonspeaking

autistic children who had used facilitation for at least 2 years

were evaluated with four experimentally controlled tasks, over a

period of 5 months. In descriptive and object handling tasks, and in

a traditional picture identification task subjects failed to type

correct answers when facilitators were blind ; one subject, however,

occasionally engaged in signing and vocalizations that were context-

appropriate. Results reflected a generalized language deficit,

rather than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and

were consistent with many previous studies revealing facilitator

cuing. Questions are raised about inconsistencies in pseudo-correct

scores, a measure of facilitator influence, reported here and in

previous research.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN & cpsidt=2935229

Three nonspeaking children with autism who had used facilitated

communication were evaluated with four experimentally controlled

tasks. Findings suggested a generalized language deficit, rather

than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and were

consistent with previous studies revealing facilitator cuing.

Questions are raised about inconsistencies in pseudocorrect scores,

a measure of facilitator influence. (Author/DB)

http://www.eric.ed.gov/sitemap/html_0900000b80021b70.html

=====

[Guest guest]

as you might assume this is a very important topic to me. You

might have read I wrote about this over a year ago very upset about

the SLP putting another " label " on Nick. I asked for information

from the group and got one link to a site that had helpful tips for

children having " word finding difficulties " . No one said at that

time that I shouldn't listen to this SLP. In fact it seemed that no

one but the two who wrote had encountered this. At that time I just

chalked it up to Nick was able to do incredible things with his

athletic skills but he might be saddled with word finding problems

due to the apraxia. I looked at it that you and others told us that

apraxia was rarely just about speech and it would show up somewhere

else. I assumed that Nick's somewhere else was word retrieval. So

I printed all the pages out from the word retrieval site and gave

them to the SLP at the time. I have also used the techniques at

home with Nick, such as when he is searching for a word (OR is he is

really searching for how to motor plan the word?) if I say the

initial sound he almost always finishes it, looking at me

gratefully. Nick's kindergarten teacher tells me that it is this

word finding issue that she sees as Nick's greatest difficulty at

this time.

I guess my question to you and the group is how would someone make a

diagnosis of word retrieval issues in a kindergarten child? When

asked Nick will say that he " can't remember the word " , do you think

he is really only not able to motor plan the word and associates

that feeling with not being able to remember the word? Or is Nick

one of the few apraxics who has trouble with memory recall

associated with language? He does have an amazing memory for visual

things and experiences but in trying to tell you about one of those

experiences he'll get so frustrated he's ready to spit because he's

unable to describe what he is thinking. I believe he sees it in his

mind but placing words to those images and getting them out is SO

difficult!

I'm really troubled by this because I had come to accept in my mind

that word finding difficulties are a part of apraxia. Now with all

this talk it seems as though you and some others are saying it is

not? If you were me, what would you do to help your child at this

time? Re-evaluate? Proceed and just not call it word retrieval

issues? I'm spinning here, I'm at the point where I'm begining to

think I don't even understand what apraxia is . . .

I apologize if I'm sounding intense, this is a VERY important issue

to us.

McCann

>

> Word retrieval may be easy to diagnose in a patient with

> Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Disease who doesn't have a speech

> impairment. But there is not enough research in preschool or early

> elementary school aged verbal disabled children to definitely state

> that the child that does not say a word or the right word on

command

> has word retrieval issues and that the problem instead is not a

> speech/motor planning problem. They are different diagnosis and

> treatments...and one I believe comes with a greater stigma -word

> retrieval. To me saying a preschool child with a speech impairment

> has word-retrieval issues is like saying a child with a hearing

> impairment has CAPD because he has trouble understanding verbal

> commands. I don't care if Dr. Hall did a study with 5

> children,,,,to decide that apraxia and word retrieval issues may go

> together and this was confirmed by follow up of 2 of those 5

> children http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?

>

_nfpb=true & _pageLabel=RecordDetails & ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED288

> 283 & ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno & objectId=0900000b80041e57

> Below I have a study with about the same amout of children that

> disputes this with nonverbal autistic children.

>

> As almost always the ones that stand up for the children are the

> parents of those children. Not that long ago all " believed " the

> hearing impaired were " dummies " or retarded.

> http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurearticles/a/retarded_2.htm

>

> I bet this group could prove what I am saying on anecdotal stories

> of following verbal disabled children that are misdiagnosed but

> where the parents didn't allow the diagnosis they knew was false

and

> fought it. Test those children at 9 or 10 -test my son Tanner

today

> for example. Those who didn't believe in him didn't have a chance

> to destroy his confidence or chance to succeed because we didn't

let

> them. I'm happy to know he proved them wrong but not happy to know

> some of you may believe he is somehow different. Tanner is very

> typical of most apraxic children in our group.

>

> Not all children with apraxia have phenomenal memories...and not

all

> have average or above average IQs...it does appear most like Tanner

> do however. I too am sorry for those that don't fall into that

> group but no matter what there is always hope. I can tell you that

> perhaps I am such a strong advocate for not allowing this label to

> be placed on a child unless all are 100% sure...and that would be

> down the road not preschool age..because some unknowledgeable SLPs

> tried to diagnose Tanner with word-retrieval problems and receptive

> issues back when he was transitioning to kindergarten and they

> were " positive " he " wouldn't make it in mainstream kindergarten "

> They were wrong and as many of you know Tanner was a top student

and

> in the 3rd grade had some bumps due to ignorance but still

> maintained a low B average and tested private to have 5th grade

> abilities in a number of academic areas including math.

>

> I believe in my heart and have said before and stand by that if I

> let " them " who didn't believe in Tanner, lead Tanner's direction,

> that 'they' would be right. Where would Tina's son be who all

> believed MR if her and her husband didn't stand by him while all

> disagreed. Again her example came at a perfect time. Don't feel

> guilty if you are one of the parents that has that diagnoses and

you

> up till this moment believe or believed it...it's never too late to

> question it. At preschool age and at the early elementary school

> years we help create who they become later in life. Who knows if

> it's ever too late -look at who was misdiagnosed all her

> life and started to get appropriate therapy and help and started to

> talk for the first time at 17 and one of the first things she typed

> on the computer was " I am not retarded " .

> http://www.cherab.org/news/.html (Hi Robin and !!)

>

> When will reading what I am trying to say really be more harsh when

> you have time to still fix it or ten years or more from now? I

> appear to have trouble getting my point through, so I just hope

some

> of you do hear me -because it will at least help save your children

> from falling into possible false diagnosis. Here's one study that

> may be of interest:

>

>

> Failure to confirm the word-retrieval problem hypothesis in

> facilitated communication

> Journal Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

> Publisher Springer Netherlands

> ISSN 0162-3257 (Print) 1573-3432 (Online)

> Subject Behavioral Science

> Issue Volume 25, Number 6 / December, 1995

> DOI 10.1007/BF02178190

> Pages 597-610

> Online Date Friday, September 30, 2005

>

>

>

>

> Carol A. Vázquez1

>

> (1) Psychology Department, State University of New York, 314

> Faculty Tower, 12561-2499 New Paltz, New York

>

> Résumé / Abstract

> Two hypotheses were raised and empirically tested to account for

the

> failure of previous controlled validation studies to find evidence

> of literacy in nonspeaking persons with autism using facilitated

> communication : (a) The naming tasks used in other studies have

> triggered specific word retrieval problems, or anomia, and ( a

> perceptual problem, visual agnosia, prevents subjects from

> recognizing objects without touching them. Three nonspeaking

> autistic children who had used facilitation for at least 2 years

> were evaluated with four experimentally controlled tasks, over a

> period of 5 months. In descriptive and object handling tasks, and

in

> a traditional picture identification task subjects failed to type

> correct answers when facilitators were blind ; one subject,

however,

> occasionally engaged in signing and vocalizations that were

context-

> appropriate. Results reflected a generalized language deficit,

> rather than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and

> were consistent with many previous studies revealing facilitator

> cuing. Questions are raised about inconsistencies in pseudo-correct

> scores, a measure of facilitator influence, reported here and in

> previous research.

>

> http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN & cpsidt=2935229

>

>

> Three nonspeaking children with autism who had used facilitated

> communication were evaluated with four experimentally controlled

> tasks. Findings suggested a generalized language deficit, rather

> than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and were

> consistent with previous studies revealing facilitator cuing.

> Questions are raised about inconsistencies in pseudocorrect scores,

> a measure of facilitator influence. (Author/DB)

> http://www.eric.ed.gov/sitemap/html_0900000b80021b70.html

>

>

> =====

>

[Guest guest]

I'm sorry I didn't notice this till recently. Sometimes

you notice something that is off right away and sometimes it hits

you down the road. It was like that for me with verbal based

testing of the verbal disabled...like when the SLP said to

me " Tanner doesn't know what the word finally means...he couldn't

use it in a sentence " And I was like " You are kidding right?! "

(at the start of 1st grade when he would say " finally " by itself)

It's so ingrained in our society that speech impairments and

receptive or cognitive delays go hand in hand that they even get away

with " studies " done with 2 or 5 children (when there are like what?

Hundreds of thousands of speech impaired children in the US alone?!)

A few years ago someone thought Tanner had a problem with finding words -except

I didn't fight it then. No more -I won't let anyone assume Tanner

has " word retrieval " problems when my child has a motor planning

disorder. Prove it. And for anyone who asks is word retrieval a

worse diagnosis then apraxia...any diagnosis that is incorrect is

horrible -but especially one that assumes the problem is due to

receptive or cognitive when it may in fact be due to that child's

disability. Apraxia is a verbal disability, any speech impairment

is. You can't test an ability on a disability -that's a violation

of that child's civil rights.

Fortunately like hearing impaired children -stuttering has awareness

and protection. Like apraxia...stuttering is also a motor

planning disorder, but unlike apraxia -stuttering is a condition

with advocacy, research and money behind it...and famous people.

http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=128

Here's just one study that shows stuttering is not caused by word

retrieval...so print this out and do research for many more for

those sheep professionals who parrot the emperor is naked just

because up till now all else do even though it's obviously incorrect.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN & cpsidt=1168021

Titre du document / Document title

Stuttering and lexical retrieval (Le bégaiement et la recherche

lexicale)

Auteur(s) / Author(s)

PACKMAN Ann (1) ; ONSLOW Mark (1) ; COOMBES (2) ; GOODWIN

(2) ;

Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)

(1) The University of Sydney, Sydney, AUSTRALIE

(2) University of Christchurch, Christchurch, NOUVELLE-ZELANDE

Résumé / Abstract

A number of models of stuttering suggest that a problem with lexical

retrieval is fundamental to the disorder. Such models predict, then,

that lexical retrieval is a necessary condition for stuttering to

occur. To investigate this prediction, this study looked at the

effects of having persons who stutter speak in a way that does not

involve lexical retrieval. If stuttering is a lexical retrieval

problem, then stuttering should not occur under such conditions. In

this study, three adults who stutter read aloud a standard English

passage and two passages consisting of non-words, which were matched

for length and initial sound to the words in the English passage.

Stuttering occurred in all three subjects at significant levels

during the reading of the non-word passages. This finding is

inconsistent with the idea that stuttering is caused by a problem

with lexical retrieval.

The example I gave the other day is a perfect comparison even if one

doesn't want to look at research and instead just wants to look at

the obvious -if a verbal disabled child has " word retrieval "

problems when asked for a word...then a hearing disabled child has

CAPD (problem understanding auditory information) when they listen.

Question and don't just accept anything that upon closer inspection

is just plain stupid. There are many comedians who make a living

out of pointing out the many things we just do or say every day

without question no matter how silly they are. We don't question

them until they are pointed out by someone like Ellen

" Batteries are packaged as though the manufacturers never want you

to get to them. On the other hand, take a good look at a package of

light bulbs. Thin, thin, thin cardboard that's open on both ends. "

http://www.amazon.com/Funny-Thing-Ellen-DeGeneres/dp/0743533623

Speaking of light bulbs -wish what I was pointing out was viewed as

just as a light bulb moment -or at least silly -but apparently some

just don't get it yet and believe I'm writing this to upset those

who have children diagnosed with word retrieval and apraxia -I'm

not -I'm trying to help. I'm confident you will understand what I " m

trying to say one day because one day there will be research and

then all the professional sheep follow -but I hope for your children

they won't be too much older then they are today. If I can leave

you with one word for today...question.

(and seek private evals to prove misdiagnosis wrong from those who

do have a clue)

If you do -like Tanner your child will have a chance to prove that person or

them wrong!

=====

[Guest guest]

,

I strongly urge you to seek a psycho-educational eval for your son.

A neuro-psychological eval would be the most beneficial.

Word retrieval is not an issue in and of itself. It will manifest

itself in many ways with age progression. It can hamper reading

fluency and written expression. It can enter into mathematical

issues. Test taking will be hampered by the child's struggling to

retrieve the correct answer " in context " . This can lead to test

anxiety and the results will not be indicative of the child's true

intelligence level.

By lagging behind in basic educational areas (hampered by retrieval

and fluency issues) knowledge will be aquired with less reliability.

Though in younger years this may not seem to pose a problem. As the

child matures and the fluency and language expression requirements

(language is written as well as verbal - remember) become more

intense the ability to learn will be impeded.

By having proper evals done at an early age (and continuing through

the years) you will be better equipped to address these issues in a

timely manner, before the landslide of learning issues takes over.

IN EASY SPEAK:

If a child has issues with word retrieval then he won't be able

to " listen fluently " and will miss bits and pieces of instruction.

If he has issues with retrieval and fluency he will have a difficult

time reading material and garnering in depth information from that

material - He will miss the " big picture " which will cause learning

interruptions as well as problems with test taking " what was really

meant by the question? " " Was the story about a girl and her dog or

was it a story about learning to help others by sharing? " the child

may readily idenify with the girl and the dog in the story but

completely miss the broader intention of the " language " of the

story.

Retrieval and fluency will impede verbal language expression.

Answereing questions in class - leading to anxiety,

difficulty expressing learning needs. If a child doesn't realize

they are missing bits and pieces then they certainly don't know to

ask for help.

Written language expression. How do they get those thoughts down

onto paper? How do they answer questions on a test or translate

information into memory form?

Fluency and retrieval issues certainly cross over into other areas

such as math (dyscalculia). If they forget bits and pieces of things

then they will have difficulty remembering on the spot whether to use

the X or the - or the division sign. Which can lead to calculating

errors. They will really lose ground as multistep calculations

begin. Many kids can do quite well with geometry but have great

difficulty with Algebra and all the formulas which must be memorized

and " retrieved " .

As a child becomes older these issues may manifest themselves as

difficulty retrieving broader ideas than just simple words.

I hope this is making sense. All kids are unique and have quite

unique learning styles and abilities. The basis of our IDEA laws

states that a child has a right to learn and be taught and express in

the ways which best suit his individual needs. This is put in place

in the form of an IEP - Individual Education Plan.

If you seek a plan simply on the fact that your child is Apraxic.

The school will address basic issues (hopefully). The law says that

ALL the educational needs should be assessed and serviced. These

issues will only be clear if a throrough eval has been done. Then

you can put safeguard in place to make sure that while your child is

getting help with basic issues they are not falling behind

educationally at the same time.

As a parent you don't know what you don't know. You may think your

child has a simple retrieval problem. It could be memory issues,

fluency problems, decoding (breaking down sentence, word, letters

into meaning and then joining them all together again mentally into a

fluent idea).

It is never a bad thing to have issues identified early as daunting

as it seems when you are handed the results. The bad thing would to

miss these issues until the child is in 8th grade and really

struggling and far behind on skills which should have been mastered

at a much younger age.

My adult sons scores range from 1% to 70% and 80's% in various

neuorpsychological subtests. He is in college and succeeding. It

took years of constantly assessing his needs and strengths and

insisting that he get the supports that he needed to be successful

educationally. What is important is knowing their IQ: performance,

verbal and full scale. When they are performing in some areas well

below what would be expected by their IQ then something is amiss and

needs to be quickly identified and addressed.

I hope some of this was helpful. Basically, I strongly, stronly urge

further testing by a professional with a degree in these areas for

any child who has basic neurological issues.

Brigett

, " srmccann2003 " <smccann@...>

wrote:

>

> as you might assume this is a very important topic to me. You

> might have read I wrote about this over a year ago very upset about

> the SLP putting another " label " on Nick. I asked for information

> from the group and got one link to a site that had helpful tips for

> children having " word finding difficulties " . No one said at that

> time that I shouldn't listen to this SLP. In fact it seemed that

no

> one but the two who wrote had encountered this. At that time I

just

> chalked it up to Nick was able to do incredible things with his

> athletic skills but he might be saddled with word finding problems

> due to the apraxia. I looked at it that you and others told us

that

> apraxia was rarely just about speech and it would show up somewhere

> else. I assumed that Nick's somewhere else was word retrieval. So

> I printed all the pages out from the word retrieval site and gave

> them to the SLP at the time. I have also used the techniques at

> home with Nick, such as when he is searching for a word (OR is he

is

> really searching for how to motor plan the word?) if I say the

> initial sound he almost always finishes it, looking at me

> gratefully. Nick's kindergarten teacher tells me that it is this

> word finding issue that she sees as Nick's greatest difficulty at

> this time.

>

> I guess my question to you and the group is how would someone make

a

> diagnosis of word retrieval issues in a kindergarten child? When

> asked Nick will say that he " can't remember the word " , do you think

> he is really only not able to motor plan the word and associates

> that feeling with not being able to remember the word? Or is Nick

> one of the few apraxics who has trouble with memory recall

> associated with language? He does have an amazing memory for

visual

> things and experiences but in trying to tell you about one of those

> experiences he'll get so frustrated he's ready to spit because he's

> unable to describe what he is thinking. I believe he sees it in

his

> mind but placing words to those images and getting them out is SO

> difficult!

>

> I'm really troubled by this because I had come to accept in my mind

> that word finding difficulties are a part of apraxia. Now with all

> this talk it seems as though you and some others are saying it is

> not? If you were me, what would you do to help your child at this

> time? Re-evaluate? Proceed and just not call it word retrieval

> issues? I'm spinning here, I'm at the point where I'm begining to

> think I don't even understand what apraxia is . . .

>

> I apologize if I'm sounding intense, this is a VERY important issue

> to us.

>

> McCann

>

>

> >

> > Word retrieval may be easy to diagnose in a patient with

> > Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Disease who doesn't have a speech

> > impairment. But there is not enough research in preschool or

early

> > elementary school aged verbal disabled children to definitely

state

> > that the child that does not say a word or the right word on

> command

> > has word retrieval issues and that the problem instead is not a

> > speech/motor planning problem. They are different diagnosis and

> > treatments...and one I believe comes with a greater stigma -word

> > retrieval. To me saying a preschool child with a speech

impairment

> > has word-retrieval issues is like saying a child with a hearing

> > impairment has CAPD because he has trouble understanding verbal

> > commands. I don't care if Dr. Hall did a study with 5

> > children,,,,to decide that apraxia and word retrieval issues may

go

> > together and this was confirmed by follow up of 2 of those 5

> > children http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?

> >

>

_nfpb=true & _pageLabel=RecordDetails & ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED288

> >

283 & ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno & objectId=0900000b80041e57

> > Below I have a study with about the same amout of children that

> > disputes this with nonverbal autistic children.

> >

> > As almost always the ones that stand up for the children are the

> > parents of those children. Not that long ago all " believed " the

> > hearing impaired were " dummies " or retarded.

> > http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurearticles/a/retarded_2.htm

> >

> > I bet this group could prove what I am saying on anecdotal stories

> > of following verbal disabled children that are misdiagnosed but

> > where the parents didn't allow the diagnosis they knew was false

> and

> > fought it. Test those children at 9 or 10 -test my son Tanner

> today

> > for example. Those who didn't believe in him didn't have a chance

> > to destroy his confidence or chance to succeed because we didn't

> let

> > them. I'm happy to know he proved them wrong but not happy to

know

> > some of you may believe he is somehow different. Tanner is very

> > typical of most apraxic children in our group.

> >

> > Not all children with apraxia have phenomenal memories...and not

> all

> > have average or above average IQs...it does appear most like

Tanner

> > do however. I too am sorry for those that don't fall into that

> > group but no matter what there is always hope. I can tell you

that

> > perhaps I am such a strong advocate for not allowing this label to

> > be placed on a child unless all are 100% sure...and that would be

> > down the road not preschool age..because some unknowledgeable SLPs

> > tried to diagnose Tanner with word-retrieval problems and

receptive

> > issues back when he was transitioning to kindergarten and they

> > were " positive " he " wouldn't make it in mainstream kindergarten "

> > They were wrong and as many of you know Tanner was a top student

> and

> > in the 3rd grade had some bumps due to ignorance but still

> > maintained a low B average and tested private to have 5th grade

> > abilities in a number of academic areas including math.

> >

> > I believe in my heart and have said before and stand by that if I

> > let " them " who didn't believe in Tanner, lead Tanner's direction,

> > that 'they' would be right. Where would Tina's son be who all

> > believed MR if her and her husband didn't stand by him while all

> > disagreed. Again her example came at a perfect time. Don't feel

> > guilty if you are one of the parents that has that diagnoses and

> you

> > up till this moment believe or believed it...it's never too late

to

> > question it. At preschool age and at the early elementary school

> > years we help create who they become later in life. Who knows if

> > it's ever too late -look at who was misdiagnosed all her

> > life and started to get appropriate therapy and help and started

to

> > talk for the first time at 17 and one of the first things she

typed

> > on the computer was " I am not retarded " .

> > http://www.cherab.org/news/.html (Hi Robin and !!)

> >

> > When will reading what I am trying to say really be more harsh

when

> > you have time to still fix it or ten years or more from now? I

> > appear to have trouble getting my point through, so I just hope

> some

> > of you do hear me -because it will at least help save your

children

> > from falling into possible false diagnosis. Here's one study that

> > may be of interest:

> >

> >

> > Failure to confirm the word-retrieval problem hypothesis in

> > facilitated communication

> > Journal Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

> > Publisher Springer Netherlands

> > ISSN 0162-3257 (Print) 1573-3432 (Online)

> > Subject Behavioral Science

> > Issue Volume 25, Number 6 / December, 1995

> > DOI 10.1007/BF02178190

> > Pages 597-610

> > Online Date Friday, September 30, 2005

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Carol A. Vázquez1

> >

> > (1) Psychology Department, State University of New York, 314

> > Faculty Tower, 12561-2499 New Paltz, New York

> >

> > Résumé / Abstract

> > Two hypotheses were raised and empirically tested to account for

> the

> > failure of previous controlled validation studies to find evidence

> > of literacy in nonspeaking persons with autism using facilitated

> > communication : (a) The naming tasks used in other studies have

> > triggered specific word retrieval problems, or anomia, and ( a

> > perceptual problem, visual agnosia, prevents subjects from

> > recognizing objects without touching them. Three nonspeaking

> > autistic children who had used facilitation for at least 2 years

> > were evaluated with four experimentally controlled tasks, over a

> > period of 5 months. In descriptive and object handling tasks, and

> in

> > a traditional picture identification task subjects failed to type

> > correct answers when facilitators were blind ; one subject,

> however,

> > occasionally engaged in signing and vocalizations that were

> context-

> > appropriate. Results reflected a generalized language deficit,

> > rather than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and

> > were consistent with many previous studies revealing facilitator

> > cuing. Questions are raised about inconsistencies in pseudo-

correct

> > scores, a measure of facilitator influence, reported here and in

> > previous research.

> >

> > http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN & cpsidt=2935229

> >

> >

> > Three nonspeaking children with autism who had used facilitated

> > communication were evaluated with four experimentally controlled

> > tasks. Findings suggested a generalized language deficit, rather

> > than isolated word-finding or perceptual difficulties, and were

> > consistent with previous studies revealing facilitator cuing.

> > Questions are raised about inconsistencies in pseudocorrect

scores,

> > a measure of facilitator influence. (Author/DB)

> > http://www.eric.ed.gov/sitemap/html_0900000b80021b70.html

> >

> >

> > =====

> >

[Guest guest]

,

What helped me to better understand the underlying difficulties that

crept up on my son was this website from New Zealand.

http://www.dyspraxia.org.nz/

Even though they used the word dyspraxia, I found information

beneficial to the treatment plan for my son. He has been labeled as

specific learning disability - written expression.

My main focus was to seek improvement in my son's overall hidden

disability. He is currently 10 and it is a long process but I have

seen improvement each year and with maturity. Word recall was/had

been mentioned when he was in 2nd grade. We work on vocabulary to

strengthen (4 words a week). It has been said a normal child needs

to see or practice 12 times in order for it to be processed in their

long term memory.

all the best,

Joanne