How does a speech therapist help with apraxia

[Guest guest]

My son is on the mild end of the autism spectrum and getting much

better. His imitation is improving, his eye contact, socialization

and affection are completely normal now, and just last week he

finally started to pretend. He even knows and can say all the sounds

of all the letters in the alphabet. He won't say the actual letters,

but will point to them when asked. He is 3.2 years old. I am not

sure if he has apraxia, as no one seems to know. We have been to a

pediatric neurologist, and several speech therapist. Four to be

exact. The only thing that has helped with his language is biomed.

intervention and his ABA therapist. His receptive is at about the

same level as his expressive. About 18 months. No 2 word combo, just

labeling and requesting with one " word " The only understandable

words are bye, go - which comes out ga, mama and daddy - which comes

out daDA, and baby - which comes out bahBAH. Drink is Ka-uh, and

open is dehdah. Lake is /k/ and so is truck. You get the idea. I

don't think he will ever talk. Anyway, I was just wondering how

someone treats apraxia. My son will not sit in a chair and watch a

speech therapist and imitate her mouth movements, so that method is

out. We tried that and he screamed and cried and wasted 50 bucks a

session because all he did was scream the whole time. In fact, he

has a hard time imitating anything on the face since he can't see

his face, and won't sit in front of a mirror long enough to do

anything. What in the world can I do to help him? I feel time is

running out. I don't want him to have to be in special ed in school,

as I was a public school teacher and know what a joke sp. ed is in

our district.