? about apraxia characteristics

February 10, 2002

I'm just wondering about something my daughter does

and would like to to know if it is a characteristic

that is almost strictly apraxic, if it could be in

other disorders, or if it could even be found in a

child with normally developing speech.

First of all, she's only 2 and barely. She can say

cheese (dee) and please (bee) if you ask her

separately, but if you ask her to say " cheese, please "

she will say dee dee or bee bee. Similar with " eye "

and brow (be), but if you ask her to say eyebrow she

says bebe. Which is also her word for baby. She can

say pa (ba) and tee (dee), but won't even attempt

potty. I think she does this because at this point

she's not demonstrated the ability to put 2 syllables

together unless they are a repetition, (mama, dada,

bebe, and baba), and that's even taking babbling into

consideration.

A ST has diagnosed her with dyspraxia, but we're

waiting for a therapy time to open up before we can

begin. I guess I'm just curious about this because I

sometimes have my doubts about the diagnosis. I know

to me that definitely sounds apraxic, but that's

because I'm ONLY familiar with apraxia at this point.

She is my only child, so I have nothing to compare her

to. Has anyone seen this type of pattern in a

normally developing child? I realize it's not

necessarily normal for a 2 yr old, but what about a

15-18 mo old? Although, should I take into

consideration that her first word was at 13 mos?

Hope someone can give me a little insight on this.

Oh, and I'm not just looking for a professional

opinion. I'm just hoping for someone that's had

experience with normal speech development.

Thanks!!! Bridget

mom to Kaeli (age 2)

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