new diagnosis of verbal apraxia for ASD son

[Guest guest]

Hi Beth- It would be great for the slp's to discuss their treatment with

each other and with you so that they are not working on the same things at

different times or so they are working on the same type of treatments. We

used

the Kaufman kits. Our teacher in the public school used the boardmaker with

the kaufman treatment kit. We had so therapy with ot and pt at the same time

privately and I purchased both Kaufman kits and did therapy at home with

. His speech is very close to normal now. He has trouble with the r's and

he is in 1st grade but he is an exceptional reader and is at the 2nd grade

level for reading. Do you ait in at therapy? That is how I found out what

homework I should be trying.

>

> Hello:

> I am new to the group. My 3 1/2 yr old son has PDD-NOS or mild

> autism. He recently has been diagnosed by both his private ST as

> well as his public school ST as having characteristics of verbal

> apraxia. My question is, is there a difference of treatment for

> apraxia? I'm sure that is a vague questions, but I just want to make

> sure that both SLP are treating him properly or if I need to move in

> another direction. Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

>

> Sincerely,

> Beth S.

>

[Guest guest]

Hello:

I am new to the group. My 3 1/2 yr old son has PDD-NOS or mild

autism. He recently has been diagnosed by both his private ST as

well as his public school ST as having characteristics of verbal

apraxia. My question is, is there a difference of treatment for

apraxia? I'm sure that is a vague questions, but I just want to make

sure that both SLP are treating him properly or if I need to move in

another direction. Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Beth S.

[Guest guest]

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/speech_language_disorders/36847

Therapy Techniques Common For Apraxia

Article at bottom explaining some techniques for therapy.

Without knowing how much speech your son has, I will just describe

what therapy has been like for my now 4.5 yr. old son.

When he was 2, he had 3 words (mama, dada, Ayen-brother name) and

everything else was the " mmm " sound.

When he started therapy his SLP started with the long vowels using

the Easy Does it for Apraxia turtles as visual cues to learn the

sounds. After he mastered the long vowels, she introduced b,m,p

sounds and connected them with a long vowel (bee, bye, bay, bow,

boo). My son had to be taught lip placement for each sound with a

lot of repetition. His mouth always seemed understimulated--like he

couldn't feel what his lips,tongue,etc. were doing or suppose to do.

She used little vibrating toys, flavored tongue depressers, tactile

cues--touched his lips or used her fingers to shut his lips, mirrors,

she would show him how to shape his lips to make sounds, etc. After

he learned the lip placement, she was then able to prompt him with

words--close your lips. He worked on these 3 sounds for a very long

time before he could master them on his own. He use to substitute

the sounds for easier sounds and needed a lot of reminding and visual

cues to produce the correct sound. Also at 2 years old--the

attention span wasn't very long so she would keep him going by

changing up technique often by using a toy, music, giving him short

breaks to play, coloring/cutting/pasting, puzzles. She was very good

at keeping him interested.

Now jump to 4.5 years old, he has a longer attention span and is able

to sit at a table and do flip books, flash cards, mimic songs. He is

now working on just articualtion using the Kaufman cards to build on

multiple syllable words and correct sentence structure.

Depending on where the breakdown is, is what should determine what is worked on

during speech therapy. My son has always had to learn every sound to produce it

correctly on his own. If your son is having just articulation errors and has a

good vocabulary, therapy should be based on improving articulation. Therapy is

very individualized for the child because not all children will be working on

the same problems. Just recently our school therapist was able to match my son

to another little girl for a group session (2 kids). This has never been an

option for him because they could never find another child that had the same

problem areas as my son.

Hope this helps some,

Tina

>

> Hello:

> I am new to the group. My 3 1/2 yr old son has PDD-NOS or mild

> autism. He recently has been diagnosed by both his private ST as

> well as his public school ST as having characteristics of verbal

> apraxia. My question is, is there a difference of treatment for

> apraxia? I'm sure that is a vague questions, but I just want to

make

> sure that both SLP are treating him properly or if I need to move

in

> another direction. Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

>

> Sincerely,

> Beth S.

>