Re: Help Me! in Michigan

[Guest guest]

Hi Dana. I live on the far northern side of greater Detroit. My son,

, is also apraxic (or " dyspraxic " as our developmental ped always

corrects me). has just turned 3 years old but has been in speech

therapy (as well as PT and OT) for over a year. We are currently getting

speech through the Beaumont system. His SLP is wonderful and extremely

helpful. Additionally, he receives ST once a week through early intervention

services but I am not happy with this.

Currently, we are waiting to hear back from our insurance company to see

whether they will continue our hospital based speech therapy benefits for

another 6 months. We would be lost without this but I always have to

consider that loss of benefits is a possibility. We can't continue with the

hospital based therapy as private pay since it runs $150/hr.

I will be watching the posts to see if anyone else from MI responds with what

they are doing for ST.

Good luck to you!

Mom to (38 months; developmental delays, hypotonia, apraxia) and

(18 months and a bundle of energy)

[Guest guest]

Dana,

I live on the east side of metro Detroit and have been to Becky Lepak &

Associates (Novi?) for speech therapy. She is very good and might be

the best in Michigan for autism and seemed to be strong in apraxia as

well (it has been over 3 years since we have been there). I think the

Kaufman Center (Birmingham?) specializes in PDD and apraxia and have

heard good things about their program but don't have first hand

knowledge.

The list covers the verbal behavior style of ABA which we have

found to be very powerful for teaching our son to use language. There

is a good set of notes from one of Vince Carbone's workshops in the

files sections of the list which would give you a good overview

of the vb style. I know that the apraxia issues sometimes have to be

dealt with seperately, but think the vb method is the most powerful

available to teach language to an autistic child.

Dave

[Guest guest]

Dana,

I will start taking my son to the Kaufman Children's

Center in West Bloomfield starting next Wednesday. I

was takingg him to the Michigan Institute for

Neurological Disorders for the last two years, but I

am dissatisfied with the doctor there (personal

choice) and am switching to a developmental

pediatrician out of Oakwood Hospital who's name is Dr.

Youngs. I have heard many good things about her from

other parents at the his school.

I sent my home phone to your personal e-mail address.

Feel free to call and I will let you know how its

going with his speech and ot at Kaufman.

=====

Michele L. Wysocki

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Michele! My daughter goes to MIND also. Was your son seeing Dr.

Nigro? He is my daughter's neurologist. Relatively speaking, I'm happy

with with no beating around the bush (which is my style). I feel his dx of

my daughter is the closest to correct that we've gotten. He does not,

however have many treatment options outside of basic, OT, SPL, etc. This is

why I too am considering the Kaufman Center. We took our daughter to the

Abilities Center in West Bloomfield for about 8 months and were unimpressed

(not a personal thing, just not a good fit for our girl).

Talk to you soon!

Dana in Michigan

rodgers@...

>

> I will start taking my son to the Kaufman Children's

> Center in West Bloomfield starting next Wednesday. I

> was takingg him to the Michigan Institute for

> Neurological Disorders for the last two years, but I

> am dissatisfied with the doctor there (personal

> choice) and am switching to a developmental

> pediatrician out of Oakwood Hospital who's name is Dr.

> Youngs. I have heard many good things about her from

> other parents at the his school.

>

> I sent my home phone to your personal e-mail address.

> Feel free to call and I will let you know how its

> going with his speech and ot at Kaufman.

>

> =====

> Michele L. Wysocki

[Guest guest]

Dana,

My son was seeing Dr. Finkel at M.I.N.D. I was

unhappy with him for numerous reasons. First and

foremost was he didn't want to see my son for a whole

year after my he turned 2! My God, how my life turned

to hell dealing with my son's behavior during that

year - having to drop out of children's programs for

his age, getting kicked out of daycare, etc. His 0-3

POHI program was nice, but uninformative. It wasn't

until his 3+ PPI class that I learned of apraxia and

researched until I found CHERAB.

At his last visit with Dr. Finkel, he wants to do an

EEG and again didn't explain why. When I requested a

medical report to give to his teachers, I learned the

EEG was to rule out Landau-Kleffner syndrome. I did

some research on it and can't for the life of me

figure why he would even consider that a possibility.

Lessons learned - question everything!!!

=====

Michele L. Wysocki

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Wow Michele,

I went through a whole load of walls for my son too, could not get anywhere

until I took him to see a private speech therapist who could not believe the

stories i had to tell. WE are a strong group--good for us!

Nina

Re: [ ] Re: Help Me! in Michigan

Dana,

My son was seeing Dr. Finkel at M.I.N.D. I was

unhappy with him for numerous reasons. First and

foremost was he didn't want to see my son for a whole

year after my he turned 2! My God, how my life turned

to hell dealing with my son's behavior during that

year - having to drop out of children's programs for

his age, getting kicked out of daycare, etc. His 0-3

POHI program was nice, but uninformative. It wasn't

until his 3+ PPI class that I learned of apraxia and

researched until I found CHERAB.

At his last visit with Dr. Finkel, he wants to do an

EEG and again didn't explain why. When I requested a

medical report to give to his teachers, I learned the

EEG was to rule out Landau-Kleffner syndrome. I did

some research on it and can't for the life of me

figure why he would even consider that a possibility.

Lessons learned - question everything!!!

=====

Michele L. Wysocki

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,, I just wanted to jump in on this Michigan services discussion

for a sec. My son (now 7 3/4) saw a therapist (speech) at the Kaufman Center

for a brief time who then left and anyway we couldn't afford the

out-of-pocket expense. I like Kaufman because and the therapist we had

used an effective method with my son -- a combination of oral-motor

stimulation and using the " Kaufman box " where word approximations are

encouraged and built upon. You are able to sit and watch the therapy and I

even video-taped a few sessions so that I could replicate the process at

home. (i bought the box.) Nothing yet has worked miracles with , but

if you're going the speech therapy route, I really liked the Kaufman center

and at Beaumont rehab, stein (who has a new, married name). My

son is not autistic, by the way, so my experience could be less meaningful

for an autistic child. is low-tone all over and severely apraxic,

aphasic, etc. Also -- he attends the POHI program at Mark Twain elementary

in Royal Oak. The therapists there are very open and educated on sensory

integration issues and the speech therapist, Sue Potter, has worked with my

son for years, doing individual studies on him and going to special training

for him and everything. She also has been good about trying all forms of

communication, including sign, communication devices, picture boards, etc.

However, she has not given up on verbalization and he continues to develop

new abilities all the time. His really does seem to be a neuromuscular

disorder rather than something like autism, so I hope this information helps

someone. We tried DHA, jr. for a while a few years ago and had little

results as far as speech goes, but some interesting leaps in motor skills.

We're going to try ProEFA now. Good luck. Sue C. in Troy, MI