Re: Just want a little support

[Guest guest]

HI,

I don't know if your son has apraxia or any speech

issues at all. But will your son be ok? With a mom

like you I would bet a million dollars that he will be

just fine!!!!!!!

Your are obviously a fantastic mom who is doing the

absolutley right thing by trusting your instincts,

which is the way to go. Taking him to a SLP is a good

thing. My son started Early intervention at 18 months,

and at 21 months brought him to a SLP at a hospital

and she mentioned apraxia but wrote in her report

severe speech disorder. So you are doing the right

thing by taking him. and Good for you! I will pray for

your son that he is ok. But know that even if there is

a issue with his speech, you are starting him at a

young age which is the best.

My son just turned 3 and is doing so well now, he had

10 words about 8 months ago and now is talking in 4-5

word sentences. With the help of EFA's! You should

maybe give those a try. Check out the efa's on the

cherab web-site and read about them and the awesome

results parents are seeing.

Sincerely,

Eileen

--- propanegirl <propanegirl@...> wrote:

> Hi everyone,

> My son is 17 months and does not talk. I will be

> taking him to a

> speech therapist on Thursday (May 30)for evaluation.

> Fortuantely for

> me I happened onto the apraxia website - and maybe

> he has it - maybe

> he doesn't; he shows all of the symptoms

> (non-speech,not nursing when

> he was a baby, and of course he hasn't kept his

> tongue in since he

> was born).

>

> He did used to say a few words - now he just says

> mama and dada. He

> constantly seems to be trying to grasp for words.

>

> I just want to know that my son will be okay.

>

> Thanks

>

>

>

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Hi and welcome,

From what I have read it is very hard to diagnose verbal apraxia at

such a young age. It is possible to diagnose oral apraxia though. In

the bookmarks section of this list there are some old posts which

include oral motor activities. Blowing bubbles, blowing cotton bowls

across the table, licking lollipops or peanut butter of lips to name

a few. Also I would suggest trying to get your son to use a straw.

This is also a good oral motor exercise.

The SLP will probably also test his receptive language with tests

where he can point. You may want to make an appointment with a

developmental pediatrician as well. It could take several months to

get an appointment but I found this to be especially helpful as other

areas not in addition to speech were assessed.

You don't say whether the SLP is from Early Intervention (the birth-

3yr state programs) if not you may want to get in touch with them as

well. The earlier you start the ball rolling the better it will be.

We didn't start therapy until 27 mo. The first 6 months was a waste

as the SLP did not recognize the apraxia and basically wasted our

time with inappropriate therapy.

My son also has seen great progress. At the age of 3 he had few

intelligible words. 1 year later he is string words together and his

intelligibility is improving daily. I too believe in the effects of

EFAs.

As Eileens has said he is so lucky to have you looking out for him.

Go with your instincts as Moms know their kids best. When people try

and tell you, Oh he is young give it time, don't! Do what you have to

do now. If it turns out he was just a little delayed, there is no

harm done. Speech therapy should be fun and your son won't know any

different!

Good luck and keep us posted.

--- In @y..., " propanegirl " <propanegirl@y...>

wrote:

> Hi everyone,

> My son is 17 months and does not talk. I will be taking him to a

> speech therapist on Thursday (May 30)for evaluation. Fortuantely

for

> me I happened onto the apraxia website - and maybe he has it -

maybe

> he doesn't; he shows all of the symptoms (non-speech,not nursing

when

> he was a baby, and of course he hasn't kept his tongue in since he

> was born).

>

> He did used to say a few words - now he just says mama and dada.

He

> constantly seems to be trying to grasp for words.

>

> I just want to know that my son will be okay.

>

> Thanks

[Guest guest]

Hi Propane girl! (it was a good weekend for it!!)

No matter what your child's diagnosis there is always hope for many

reasons. The diagnosis could be wrong -which is why I always suggest

second opinions from various medical professionals and therapists for

younger children, and educational professionals as well for older children.

Also, we are still learning about how the brain works -so we don't

fully understand every aspect of the brain yet. We do know that

babies and children have developing brains that are still malleable -

and in many aspects have remarkable healing abilities -and perhaps

the ability to " rewire " faulty connections.

The symptoms you describe, " non-speech, not nursing when

he was a baby, and of course he hasn't kept his tongue in since he

was born " show signs of oral motor dysfunction, perhaps even with

sensory dysfunction as well, not necessarily oral apraxia or verbal

apraxia. As said -a child can be diagnosed with oral apraxia

quite young -however if a child is nonverbal, they can be diagnosed

as " suspected apraxia " and treated with therapy as if they were just

in case. Apraxia therapy will not hurt any late talker -and will be

crucially important the earlier the better if your child is apraxic.

Please don't freak out over the names -they are just the names to

describe various aspects of muscle, sensory, or motor ability of the

mouth, jaw and tongue necessary for speech. Names can be strange too.

My older son was high risk for SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)

but did not have what they used to call SID (they now call it DSI or

dysfunction of sensory integration), while my younger son who was not

at risk for SIDS -has SID.

For example with names -your child could drool if he has weakness to the

muscles -maybe called hypotonia -maybe a type of dysarthria. My

older son Dakota had crushed facial nerves from a traumatic delivery -

among other damage. He did not have oral and verbal apraxia in the

sense we talk about -however he did have oral motor dysfunction with

eating and feeding and even at times -breathing problems. He was

diagnosed as having " oral apraxia " by a pediatric neurologist -but in

the literal sense due to his crushed facial nerves which hindered his

motor ability. Dakota did and does not have oral apraxia in the sense we talk

about here. (confused?) Dakota had problems with drooling too -and I have

lots of strategies to suggest for that -there are some in the

archives here. Again though -Dakota does not have apraxia -but was a late

talker.

My son Tanner, also a late talker -who has oral and verbal never drooled and

never had

trouble with eating -but didn't know how to smile or make facial

expressions, lick his lips, or blow bubbles or out candles on

command. So in other words -not all the signs of apraxia are for

apraxia -and some can be for other disorders.

Some of the " signs " of apraxia found at websites online are old

definitions unfortunately -and going ahead we need to make sure that

everyone knows that signs may not fit all apraxic children. With the larger

support

sources out there where we are able to know each other and our

children -we can see if the signs are correct in larger numbers. Not

all apraxic children have trouble with nursing for example -there

are children such as my son Tanner who somehow developed the apraxia

sometime before his first birthday -we believe from 2 weeks of high

fevers.

With an apraxic child you also have to look at the whole body. Yes

there are those rare children who have verbal apraxia and nothing

else, no low tone, no sensory issues -however, apraxia can affect

other parts of the body -including things most don't think about like

breath control -so it's always a good idea to see a pediatric

neurologist or a developmental pediatrician to confirm or rule out

diagnosis. Try to find one that is knowledgeable about at least

autism -to find one that is knowledgeable about pediatric verbal

apraxia would be a plus. Important aspects for future success will

probably include evaluations and therapy as early as possible -which

are good to start before the EFAs for a few reasons. I think once

parents start the EFAs they get lazy and start to think like most

that their child would have started talking anyway and are not as

aggressive. Late talkers do not typically need therapy or EFAs. If

your child regresses when taken off the EFAs that is a sign that

something in the EFAs is needed by the central nervous system -and a

sign that he or she is not a typical late talker -which means that he

or she will need therapy too. As Joe Hibeln MD of the NIH said at

the First Apraxia Conference we hosted -the brain responds to

multiple stimuli -so input from the therapy together with the EFAs

will be more beneficial.

By the way -both my children were diagnosed as severe when two or

three -and both are doing amazing today at 5 and 7. I just got off the phone

with my town school's SLP who is testing Tanner for Kindergarten.

The one question she asked him was " What is the same about yellow

and red? " She was laughing saying that Tanner's answer was " Yellow

and Red are girl's colors -boys colors are blue and green " How's

that for a child that was only supposed to answer " color " and that

was diagnosed many times as having severe oral and verbal apraxia, mild

hypotonia

and sensory integration dysfunction?!!

My son Dakota who was so severe he was in therapy from birth? Dakota

was even after 2 years of therapy and hard work -6 month global

delayed at 2 years old with " no guarantee he'll ever progress " (from Trever De

Souza MD his pediatric neurologist who is awesome -and who gave us lots of

suggestions and help) I

also don't really care that much about Dakota's ADHD diagnosis -that every

doctor and teacher highly suspects him with in comparison to where he

came from. Dakota is going into third grade next year -he's excelling in

school with mostly A's now -and all teachers and neurologists agree he's

brilliant. Since the fish oil therapy we started him on-his

attention (and grades) have gotten better, it's not as 100% as it is for speech

however. It amazes me that most of what you read online with fish

oil in the learning area is for dyslexia and ADHD and the most

amazing changes are from speech though.

=====

[Guest guest]

Welcome!

I have to also speak up about the EFAs. I can't imagine how many times I might

have seen that information of various sites for speech and especially apraxia.

I'm sure I was just a bit put off by potential advertisement of health food

products on the sites. That isn't the case at all. I wish I could scream to you

to try this first. My son made changes within 2 hours of them!

Let us know how it goes at the appointment.

Lynn

[ ] Just want a little support

Hi everyone,

My son is 17 months and does not talk. I will be taking him to a

speech therapist on Thursday (May 30)for evaluation. Fortuantely for

me I happened onto the apraxia website - and maybe he has it - maybe

he doesn't; he shows all of the symptoms (non-speech,not nursing when

he was a baby, and of course he hasn't kept his tongue in since he

was born).

He did used to say a few words - now he just says mama and dada. He

constantly seems to be trying to grasp for words.

I just want to know that my son will be okay.

Thanks