Re: High Tone versus Low Tone and/or global apraxia

[Guest guest]

OK well this started out as low tone/hypotonia and now is more the

motor planning aspect -so wanted to provide a few points for those

that are still new to this.

Not all children with verbal apraxia have dyspraxia (motor planning

deficits in the body) Bilker's son is a perfect

example of a child with " pure apraxia "

http://www.debtsmart.net/talk/brandon.html

My son has always had mild dyspraxia together with his apraxia.

Most things you wouldn't notice and he was riding a bike from the

age of 4. He was never good at roller blading -but did it a bit.

Nobody noticed it for the most part once he was in school. So he

wouldn't be teased we bought him sneakers that were Velcro when he

was little so he didn't have to struggle to tie his shoes in front

of the other kids –and now the guys his age (11) don't tie shoes –

they tie them once and then slip them on and off –so this is a skill

Tanner takes longer than he should with still because he didn't do

it- which is kind of my fault but I just didn't want him being

teased. He can button his shorts (slow) but chooses instead to pull up and

down his shorts leaving the button buttoned -stuff like that most

wouldn't know. But that aside –he writes beautifully –but would

rather type.

When Tanner was younger he had to work on writing -his hand would hurt. The OTs

worked on this with him for years.

By the way for those of you with school age children

that want to teach typing skills a great site is

http://www.freetypinggame.net/

Tanner's favorite is the frog one but he plays all of them. He

plays on advanced- and he's better than me and I type super fast!

Sports...in the past Tanner took swimming, karate and today

Tanner plays football, baseball, basketball and if you saw him with

his friends you wouldn't have a clue. So for those of you with

newly diagnosed children please know there are always degrees of

severity and just like hypotonia –the most severe will be noticed

whether someone gives you a diagnosis or not.

Below is a message from –one of the moderators who has 2

children with apraxia –and her older son Khalid did have severe

dyspraxia or limb apraxia with his oral and verbal apraxia. The

other messages are from who is a moderator here –and her

daughter Lindsey who is around Tanner's age -11 –has verbal and limb

apraxia. Some call that global apraxia too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi All, I appreciate everyone's thoughtful messages

regarding my post about Khalid. I'd like to reply to the

list being there are many that sent me the same questions

both here as well as off the list. With school and

everything it will be easier to answer everyone here.

Khalid will soon be 17 in November. As mentioned, Khalid

did not just have Apraxia of Speech, but Apraxia of the

body as well. Since those were the questions asked, I'd

like to concentrate in this area for this message. (You can

hear Khalid and his brother at the Talking page and how

they speak.(Their recordings were over 3 years ago- time

for another update on the boys.)http://www.debtsmart.com/talk/

Khalid does continue to have some difficulty with his

handwriting. In spite of his difficulty his handwriting is

now easy to read but that took years to work on and it

still does not come easily for him today. Now days he uses

the Computer for most of his written work - which is wonderful

for children with motor Apraxia of the body.

His writing difficulties are in the area of manipulating a

regular or even a large pencil, spacing words, he writes

too hard (poor control of smaller muscles of his hand.)

Copying from the blackboard (perceptual skills) Khalid's

handwriting and written expression use to impact his school

work in younger years. Today with learned coping strategies

we see significant improvements in Khalid's school work.

Khalid struggled with cutting, handling small objects,

especially in his primary grades. At times he still has

some troubles with putting together legos or micro puzzles,

car models, handling screw drivers/tools etc. However he

does practice with these activities to help him with motor

planning awareness with his hand and fingers, fine motor

activities at OT and home helped him a great deal. Khalid

did enjoy activities for example- play dough, silly putty,

finger painting with paints or pudding, whip cream, shaving

cream, catching bubbles with his hands. Whatever activities

we did- we made it a funtime!

Khalid's coordination difficulties made dressing an

enduring task. Mornings went slow- baths/clothing were

likely picked out the night before to speed things up.

Leaving time for brushing teeth, brushing hair, putting on

socks, fastening/buttoning, zipping, tying his shoes. I can

recall searching for velcro type shoes and elastic band

pants for him 8 and 9 years old. Not easy to find these

type clothes for big kids -at least back then. Sports

Jerseys became a favorite of Khalids, especially because

there were no buttons involved to slow down the dressing

process.

By the time Khalid was in 3rd/4th grades, he was more so

able to dress himself independently. By 6th grade, he was

self-sufficient in all that he does. To the point that he

set his own alarm, showered, got dressed, had breakfast and

has managed to be on time for school ever since. I'm aware

that apraxic kids who have Apraxia of the body as well are

stereotyped as messy dressers with poor hygiene. Well not

this kid, nor his brother Jadd. They formed good grooming

habits from early years. Taking that extra time needed to

dress properly, I feel is essential for all my children's

self esteem.

Khalid also had to learn how to hold his utensils properly

and eat correctly. This is something we have worked with

him for many years. No longer an issue, he now does

beautifully at mealtime. (As says, it's now part of

his " Motor Memory " !)

Patience, time and practice that was the key when Khalid

was a preschool and young school age child in primary his

grades. Those were not easy years for Khalid, my heart went

out to him. It seemed he was having to think and learn many

times over how to do things that we take for granted

everyday. I know he had many frustrating moments- though he

was not a child to complain.

Due to Khalid's gross motor skills he had problems at first

in sports and riding a bike, they were very difficult for

himr. Khalid now plays basketball, football, ski, run- can

do just about anything in sports with the exception of

skateboarding. With repetitive work throughout the years he

has overcome and mastered most of these obstacles. With

intensive occupational therapy and athletic personal

trainers (teen years) has helped him immensely learning the

skills needed for independence. For those task that are

still challenging to him, such as writing- he has learned

to adapt and modify to make these task easier. Not to say

he is an enthusiastic writer- still laborious for him in

handwriting and written expression.

Jadd is my youngest Apraxic child, and there are tasks that

he is struggling with too,(not to the degree that Khalid

did) which may mean he has issues in addition to Apraxia

such as perceptual skills, cursive and word spacing. (which

surprises me as printing he does very well) Khalid takes

what he's learned to advise Jadd in areas that frustrate

him. The latest on Jadd, his teacher would like to have him

tested for central auditory processing disorder(CAPD). Now

that Jadd is getting older (4th grade) we are now seeing

some possible signs of CAPD. We will be looking into this with

his school's support team. Jadd is doing very well with his

speech/articulation. Anyone here have a child dealing with CAPD?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

http://www.speech-express.com/associated-disabilities/capd.html

Hope this message has answered some questions about Khalid

and his Global Apraxia. Below are some resources that may

be helpful to the group. Thank you all for writing me

Mustafa

Mom to Khalid 16.10, Jadd 9.3, Danya 10.11

(Both sons diagnosed with Apraxia and talking very well)

American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Parents Ask About Occupational Therapy Services in Schools

http://www.aota.org/featured/area6/links/link02x.asp

Accommodations and Modifications for Students with

Handwriting Problems and/or Dysgraphia

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/writing/dysgraphia.html

LD OnLine In Depth: Writing - A selection of articles about

writing and learning disabilities.

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/writing/writing.htm

Tips for Parents to Encourage Writing

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/writing/parent_tips.html

From Illegible to Understandable:

How Word Prediction and Speech Synthesis Can Help

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/technology/word_prediction.html

Parents and Homeschoolers:

Fun Ideas You Can Do at Home

http://www.hwtears.com/funideas.htm

Extra Practice with Fine Motor Skills

http://www.hwtears.com/extrapractice.htm

Re: [ ] is starting to jump rope

Good for !

Lindsey has just taught herself to jump rope. They work on this in

PE and

Lindsey's been having a hard time,but the PE teacher praised

her,because she

was really trying. So where she goes,her jump rope goes too! She has

been

jumping A LOT lol! She went from not being able to jump at all 3

weeks

ago,now shes actually doing it FAST :-)

Lindsey has always had such a determined attitude. She wants to tie

her

shoes,but thats one she can't get and its making her mad!

Her newest task is learning how to ride a bike without training

wheels. She

is SO afraid,but would never say it..No, not her:) But we are

practicing a

few minutes everyday. The bikes is in the house so she can sit on

it. She is

making BIG progress and I think it will be any day now!

Jennie

Mom to Lindsey-7.7

This was pretty bittersweet for me.

As you know Lindsey is in cheerleading. I never realized how

severely apraxic

her body us,and never dreamed she would have as much trouble as she

is.

Novemeber 15th in Orlando,Lindsey is going to competition with her

team. We will

be staying over night in a nice hotel with cheerleaders from

everywhere.

I told several parents that they didn't have to worry as Lindsey

will not be

going to competition.We are only doing this for fun. I was not even

worried

about competiton because in my mind we were definetly not going.

Yesterday the coach took me to the side and said they all want

Lindsey to go to

competiiton,she is more part of the team then alot of them she said.

she goes to

every practice and games and She gives her so much credit for even

being out

there and trying.

They will work Lindsey into the routines,but Lindsey will not be

doing the

routine,she will be clapping mainly,if the team gets deductions

becasue of

Lindsey then so be it the coach said she is part of the team.

She knows the words so I hope she can get them out that day.

Jennie

Mom to seven year old Lindsey

Re: Good (great!!) stuff " Go !!! "

Wow Jennie this is so cool! I know we spoke not to long ago and now

it seems things are even better than ever!

We have to get the kids together again sometime this summer. Just

in case anyone else is a member -here's our photo album for when our

kids met up at the Club Med near me

http://ph./group/Florida_Apraxia/photos/browse/e9ee

Two cute photos of and Tanner

http://ph./group/Florida_Apraxia/photos/view/e9ee?b=3

http://ph./group/Florida_Apraxia/photos/view/e9ee?b=1

And Tammy -just saw the photos of our tailgate party at Typhoon

Lagoon there too! My kids love the water parks so if you and anyone

else wants to meet up there (or at any of the other parks in

Orlando) count us in! Sounds like it's time to celebrate!

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