Guest guest Posted January 10, 2007 Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 I am a new member with a 4 1/2 yr old daughter who is non-verbal. She was diagnosed with autism at age 3, although when we adopted her from China at age 14 months it was clear she was in bad physical condition and very developmentally delayed. (more so than usual for institutionalized children) We started her in therapies immediately, including speech. While she vocalizes, she has never said a word. (sometimes it's part of the sound of a word -- " uh " for " up " or " duh " for " down. " ) She understands when we are trying to get her to say something and will often look at us and move her mouth but no sound comes out. Then, moments later while she's doing something else, we'll hear her vocalize as she does all day long. Is this something that is common to apraxia? I know that she understands the concept of talking and her receptive language is very good. She's not so good at signing although she does know some signs. We usually have to prompt her to use them. Also, I worry that if she doesn't start talking soon she will never talk. I don't suppose there is some magic cut-off date for speech, but can anyone give me a story about how their child was 5 yrs or older before saying his or her first word??? Thanks! Northrip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2007 Report Share Posted January 11, 2007 , The description of your daughters speech that you gave sounds like apraxia to me. It's very common for apraxic children to " drop " the ending, or even the beginning of words. Sometimes they even " add in " a letter. For example in " blends " like " sn " , my daughter (5 1/2) will say Sa-No, instead of snow. The reason (explained by an SLP) is that the transition of blends is hard- its actually easier to add in the short a. Further, it is very common (and very sad) that children are often misdiagnosed as autistic, and there are cases of being misdiagnosed as MR. When really they are apraxic. She may not be signing due to the fact that you do have to motor plan- if she has verbal apraxia, its likely, she may have limb apraxia, or possibly fine motor skills delays. How are her other fine motor skills. I have heard of children who are over 5 when they start to talk. Those positive stories are out there. But for a moment I'd like to go back to the autism dx. What kind of therpies has your daughter received so far? Dawn in NJ > > I am a new member with a 4 1/2 yr old daughter who is non-verbal. > She was diagnosed with autism at age 3, although when we adopted her > from China at age 14 months it was clear she was in bad physical > condition and very developmentally delayed. (more so than usual for > institutionalized children) We started her in therapies > immediately, including speech. > > While she vocalizes, she has never said a word. (sometimes it's part > of the sound of a word -- " uh " for " up " or " duh " for " down. " ) She > understands when we are trying to get her to say something and will > often look at us and move her mouth but no sound comes out. Then, > moments later while she's doing something else, we'll hear her > vocalize as she does all day long. > > Is this something that is common to apraxia? I know that she > understands the concept of talking and her receptive language is > very good. She's not so good at signing although she does know some > signs. We usually have to prompt her to use them. > > Also, I worry that if she doesn't start talking soon she will never > talk. I don't suppose there is some magic cut-off date for speech, > but can anyone give me a story about how their child was 5 yrs or > older before saying his or her first word??? > > Thanks! > Northrip > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2007 Report Share Posted January 11, 2007 For what it's worth , we have a similar case but a year older, but yeah she was like that at 4 1/2. In fact she's half Chinese/Taiwanese (from Mom), half Caucasian (from me), and 5 1/2 years old. She got a bit more verbal in kindergarten this school year, which is about the time we started having hope again. She did the local school's " four-year-old " program and seemed to like the little bit of structure, but kindergarten helped a lot, along with the physical/speech therapies. But it's up and down. A few months ago she was drawing rainbows and faces and now she's back to just blobbing paint in the coloring books, or onto paper to fold to make " butterflies. " She did start verbalizing more what she wanted, but yeah the syllables are a bit off. " Blue's Clues " becomes " booz cooz, " " eggs " becomes " esgs " and " six " is more like " siskusuh. " I wonder if you'll have similar devlopments and where it's all going. She does have a good memory for where things are when we visit a store or a relative's house, the latter happening roughly yearly. She can also carry a tune with approximate syllables, and did a pretty good " Macarena " at the 4-year-old show last year (along with a couple hundred other kids, but she stared blankly during the other tunes). Hang in there. I'll be following this thread you started. I'm just joining here myself. --Mike Dougherty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 What is the 'blue card'? I homeschool my son, have never dealt with a school, so I'm not sure what this is. I printed out a vaccine exemption form for her, is that not good enough? Thanks, I was looking for someone here that had done this. I'll let her know! Our district is really horrible, I wouldn't be surprised if they fought her anyway, but it'll strengthen her resolve if she knows others out there have done this without problems. I live in CA and recently enrolled my son in a private preschool. He is partially vaccinated. I just signed the philosophical exemption on the blue card. I got no hassles. (Max's Mom) Angie Ask me how you can make your home a safer environment,and make money doing it! http://saferproducts4u.makemoreathome.com/ Find out if your home has hazardous chemicals that could be affecting your family's health. http://saferproducts4u.healthyhometour.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 > The " blue card " is the California School Immunization Record (Form # > PM286). Normally you provide the immunization record from your > doctor and the school personnel fill out this record to keep on > file. It is a standard form used by schools. On it you have 3 > options for exemption, Medical-Permanant, Medical-Temporary, and > Personal beliefs. For both Medical exemptions, you need a doctors > written statement. For personal beliefs, you just check that box on > the front and sign the back. They are also now sometimes requesting > a TB assessement as well which you can take an exemption for too. Yep, this is what I did, I am in CA. Just signed the back of the blue card under philosophical exemption. I waived all vaccinations, the TB test, and even the general physical exam. Dana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.