Re: New syndrome SPEEDY Babies Is this pure verbal apraxia/dyspraxia?!

[Guest guest]

Wow, what an interesting article - thanks so much for forwarding !

This describes my son (3.5) perfectly. He walked at 9 months, is very physical,

but was a late talker. After speech therapy, he began talking more, but could

really only say short words clearly. The longer the word, or any sentence, the

less you could understand. He was diagnosed with dyspraxia and also oral motor

issues - moving his tongue and lips.

This group has been SO helpful to me as my son and my daughter (2) both have

dyspraxia. I feel like they are getting the help that they need with therapy

and the omega 3 supplements - they are both improving... but, it has been

scary/stressful/fascinating to learn more and more about these issues... Thank

goodness for this group!

Thanks for sharing!

>

> We know pure verbal apraxia/dyspraxia is rare...they say this is around 1 to 2

percent of children. Also Tanner was very advanced in some of his motor skills

-and behind on some that should have been " easy " Some may have thought him to

be a " SPEEDY Baby " when he climbed to the top of the monkey bars and down at

3...but they could have missed him going up the stairs to the slide one foot one

foot. Interesting huh?!

>

> SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral Syndrome

>

> ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) — Children's speech and language disorders caused

by unknown factors are common. The disorders vary in type and manifest

themselves differently in different ages. Delayed motor development is widely

known to coexist with speech and language disorders. However, hardly any

attention has been paid to children in whom delayed speech development is

associated with learning to walk unassisted at an early stage.

>

> Dr Marja-Leena Haapanen from the Phoniatric Division of the Helsinki

University Central Hospital has studied and described these children and

observed a recurrent pattern in their behavioural phenotype. The children were

examined by a multi-disciplinary research group over an extensive period in

time.

>

> Usually these children, known as SPEEDY babies, have good language

comprehension skills, but their speech is very unclear, although they may start

speaking early on and can be quite talkative. In some cases, the speech

production is delayed, the child speaks less, and the speech maybe unclear,

especially when speaking long sentences. What makes the child's speech

unintelligible are words and sentences that are produced incorrectly, but each

time in a different way, in addition to consistent sound distortion. Consistent

sound distortions are associated with tongue dysfunction and are manifest in

sounds in which the tip of the tongue is used.

>

> SPEEDY babies develop motor skills early, and often start walking unassisted

at ten months. They are often avid runners, climbers and eager to jump and skip,

and all in all, are quite agile and physically active. They are usually in good

physical health, and do not typically suffer from respiratory infections, ear

infections or allergies. The intellectual skills structure is usually divided so

that their vision-based performance is above the average for their age group and

better than their linguistic performance.

>

> According to Dr Haapanen, some one to two per cent of children are SPEEDY

babies. " The phenotype of these children combines three qualities: atypically

speedy motor development, unclear speech, and tongue carriage dysfunction, "

Haapanen says. " These characteristics seem to form a triad to the extent that we

can talk about a syndrome that has been named `SPEEDY baby'. "

>

> The term SPEEDY refers to speed in the development of motor skills as well as

problems related to speech development (SPEE – speech and DY – developmental

verbal dyspraxia, dysphasia, tongue dysfunction).

>

> Dr Haapanen points out that physical activeness and unclear speech may have

adverse psychosocial effects and overshadow these children's true skills.

" SPEEDY babies may not receive the recognition they deserve for their advanced

motor skills and activeness and intellectual performance, because these may be

overshadowed by their problems, which cause trouble and disappointments, "

Haapanen says. " It would be important to accurately identify this particular

syndrome in these children, so that their parents and other carers could receive

appropriate and timely information and the children could thereby have the

support they need. "

>

> Journal reference:

>

> 1. Haapanen ML, Aro T and Isotalo E. SPEEDY babies: A putative new

behavioral syndrome of unbalanced motor-speech development. Neuropsychiatr Dis

Treat., 2008 Dec; 4(6):1225-33

>

> Adapted from materials provided by University of Helsinki, via AlphaGalileo.

> Email or share this story:

> Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the

following formats:

> APA

>

> MLA

> University of Helsinki (2009, April 23). SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral

Syndrome. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 23, 2009, from

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/04/090423082752.htm

>

> =====

>

[Guest guest]

Great article! That is my Jack! Unbelievable gross motor for his age (4) but we

are just starting to understand his speech which really did not start at all

until 3. His aides are allowed to wear sneakers when they are assigned to Jack

on the playground. In addition, Jack is just turning 4 and reading! Something to

be said for our delayed darlings!

>

> We know pure verbal apraxia/dyspraxia is rare...they say this is around 1 to 2

percent of children. Also Tanner was very advanced in some of his motor skills

-and behind on some that should have been " easy " Some may have thought him to

be a " SPEEDY Baby " when he climbed to the top of the monkey bars and down at

3...but they could have missed him going up the stairs to the slide one foot one

foot. Interesting huh?!

>

> SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral Syndrome

>

> ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) — Children's speech and language disorders caused

by unknown factors are common. The disorders vary in type and manifest

themselves differently in different ages. Delayed motor development is widely

known to coexist with speech and language disorders. However, hardly any

attention has been paid to children in whom delayed speech development is

associated with learning to walk unassisted at an early stage.

>

> Dr Marja-Leena Haapanen from the Phoniatric Division of the Helsinki

University Central Hospital has studied and described these children and

observed a recurrent pattern in their behavioural phenotype. The children were

examined by a multi-disciplinary research group over an extensive period in

time.

>

> Usually these children, known as SPEEDY babies, have good language

comprehension skills, but their speech is very unclear, although they may start

speaking early on and can be quite talkative. In some cases, the speech

production is delayed, the child speaks less, and the speech maybe unclear,

especially when speaking long sentences. What makes the child's speech

unintelligible are words and sentences that are produced incorrectly, but each

time in a different way, in addition to consistent sound distortion. Consistent

sound distortions are associated with tongue dysfunction and are manifest in

sounds in which the tip of the tongue is used.

>

> SPEEDY babies develop motor skills early, and often start walking unassisted

at ten months. They are often avid runners, climbers and eager to jump and skip,

and all in all, are quite agile and physically active. They are usually in good

physical health, and do not typically suffer from respiratory infections, ear

infections or allergies. The intellectual skills structure is usually divided so

that their vision-based performance is above the average for their age group and

better than their linguistic performance.

>

> According to Dr Haapanen, some one to two per cent of children are SPEEDY

babies. " The phenotype of these children combines three qualities: atypically

speedy motor development, unclear speech, and tongue carriage dysfunction, "

Haapanen says. " These characteristics seem to form a triad to the extent that we

can talk about a syndrome that has been named `SPEEDY baby'. "

>

> The term SPEEDY refers to speed in the development of motor skills as well as

problems related to speech development (SPEE – speech and DY – developmental

verbal dyspraxia, dysphasia, tongue dysfunction).

>

> Dr Haapanen points out that physical activeness and unclear speech may have

adverse psychosocial effects and overshadow these children's true skills.

" SPEEDY babies may not receive the recognition they deserve for their advanced

motor skills and activeness and intellectual performance, because these may be

overshadowed by their problems, which cause trouble and disappointments, "

Haapanen says. " It would be important to accurately identify this particular

syndrome in these children, so that their parents and other carers could receive

appropriate and timely information and the children could thereby have the

support they need. "

>

> Journal reference:

>

> 1. Haapanen ML, Aro T and Isotalo E. SPEEDY babies: A putative new

behavioral syndrome of unbalanced motor-speech development. Neuropsychiatr Dis

Treat., 2008 Dec; 4(6):1225-33

>

> Adapted from materials provided by University of Helsinki, via AlphaGalileo.

> Email or share this story:

> Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the

following formats:

> APA

>

> MLA

> University of Helsinki (2009, April 23). SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral

Syndrome. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 23, 2009, from

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/04/090423082752.htm

>

> =====

>

[Guest guest]

This fits my kids.

My oldest crawled at 6 mo, walked at 10.5, ran almost immediately

after walking, potty trained at 22 mo (without me suggesting it)

started riding a trike at 21 mo, etc. He understood everything,

including very complex directions and he had amazing fine motor

control very early, was jumping, hopping, skipping earlier than other

kids. He also wasn't understood by strangers until age 4. I couldn't

even tell you if his errors were consistent because until age 3 I

couldn't understand most of what he said. He would come up to me and

say, " ah wobugh wehkre jkwerw. " LOL I'd said, " I'm sorry I don't

understand you. " Then he'd scream, throw himself on the ground and

bang his head repeatedly in frustration. A couple months after he

turned 4 it was like someone flipped the translation switch and he was

perfectly clear. He also had an absurdly advanced vocabulary for a 4

year old. If he asked for a treat assuming I'd say no and I said yes

he's reply by saying something like, " Wow mom! That's fantastic. I

didn't anticipate you'd say yes! " Not quite what most 4 yr olds would

say.

My second was very early on the motor stuff. He crawled at 6.5 mo and

walked at 10 months to the day. He had slightly advanced fine motor

skills, but I could tell his finger control was slightly " off. " He

does have slight dyspraxia in his fingers. His speech was very slow

and errors completely inconsistent when he made sounds at all.

Unfortunately his language is also a severe issue. I still think that

his language disorder (whatever that may be) and his speech disorder

(clearly apraxia) are two unrelated things. He doesn't have the soft

signs that so many kids have here. I think he's closer to a " pure "

apraxic than most, but he also has this language stuff.

My third child was also very early. She was sitting up herself

unsupported at 4 months. I have pictures to prove it too! She was

crawling very very slowly, but with purpose before 6 months (isn't it

awful you don't remember exact dates on the third!) I guess she

mastered crawling by 6 months for sure. She was cruising around 7 to

8 months and then decided she was a bit too scared to take the plunge

into real walking. I really thought she was going to walk earlier

than her brothers, but she didn't walk until 11.5 months. I think it

was more a personality issue than not being able to. Her brothers had

no fear and fell over and over when they were learning and would just

laugh. She didn't like to fall so she was much more cautious. What

amazes me with her is she had a mature pencil grip at six months of

age! And she could make marks on paper that early. My son's OT would

always give her something to scribble on at the end of his appts when

we were chatting just so she could gawk at this teeny thing scribbling

away properly with a pencil. She had apraxia " red flags " early on,

almost no babbling, only vowel sounds and not the typical ones you

hear. Her jaw used to slide to one side and she refused to chew on

the left, but these things have all gone away. She's speaking a mile

a minute and at age 2.5 putting together sentences (or paragraphs)

with a minimum of 8 words. When we can understand he we hear that she

uses articles, pronouns, proper verb tenses, plurals, etc. All the

language things we're still working on with her 7.5 yr old brother.

Her SLPs marvel at her vocabulary, stubbornness, intelligence and

maturity. In connected speech she drops all endings and beginnings

and it comes out as a string of garbly gook. It's unclear whether

it's phonological or merely artic, but she is completely

unintelligible to strangers and whenever she has a language spurt

(like recently) she even becomes unintelligible to me. With a context

I might catch 50% without asking her to repeat. Without a context I'm

usually lost. Having two attentive brothers means we have two extra

translators so when she gets really upset we can usually piece things

together. Her errors seem to be consistent so I'm not really that

concerned with her, although I'm still pursuing speech therapy. I'd

probably be more worried if my first hadn't been very similar. Her

current SLP says that there may be some slight motor planning stuff

happening, but I don't really see it. She never gropes and her mouth

just looks " normal " when she talks compared to how her one brother is.

Miche

[Guest guest]

Amazing! This describes my little guy (2.5 yrs) to a T. He hit all of his gross

and fine motor skill milestones ahead of schedule, was walking by 9 months and

running at full speed two weeks after that. When he was 21 months old and just

entering EI, the evaluator said that he was manipulating with ease toys she

usually only gives to three year olds.

I had never heard of SPEEDY syndrome but I'm definitely going to do some

research on it now. Thank you so much for passing that information along :-)

-les

>

> We know pure verbal apraxia/dyspraxia is rare...they say this is around 1 to 2

percent of children. Also Tanner was very advanced in some of his motor skills

-and behind on some that should have been " easy " Some may have thought him to

be a " SPEEDY Baby " when he climbed to the top of the monkey bars and down at

3...but they could have missed him going up the stairs to the slide one foot one

foot. Interesting huh?!

>

> SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral Syndrome

>

> ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) — Children's speech and language disorders caused

by unknown factors are common. The disorders vary in type and manifest

themselves differently in different ages. Delayed motor development is widely

known to coexist with speech and language disorders. However, hardly any

attention has been paid to children in whom delayed speech development is

associated with learning to walk unassisted at an early stage.

>

> Dr Marja-Leena Haapanen from the Phoniatric Division of the Helsinki

University Central Hospital has studied and described these children and

observed a recurrent pattern in their behavioural phenotype. The children were

examined by a multi-disciplinary research group over an extensive period in

time.

>

> Usually these children, known as SPEEDY babies, have good language

comprehension skills, but their speech is very unclear, although they may start

speaking early on and can be quite talkative. In some cases, the speech

production is delayed, the child speaks less, and the speech maybe unclear,

especially when speaking long sentences. What makes the child's speech

unintelligible are words and sentences that are produced incorrectly, but each

time in a different way, in addition to consistent sound distortion. Consistent

sound distortions are associated with tongue dysfunction and are manifest in

sounds in which the tip of the tongue is used.

>

> SPEEDY babies develop motor skills early, and often start walking unassisted

at ten months. They are often avid runners, climbers and eager to jump and skip,

and all in all, are quite agile and physically active. They are usually in good

physical health, and do not typically suffer from respiratory infections, ear

infections or allergies. The intellectual skills structure is usually divided so

that their vision-based performance is above the average for their age group and

better than their linguistic performance.

>

> According to Dr Haapanen, some one to two per cent of children are SPEEDY

babies. " The phenotype of these children combines three qualities: atypically

speedy motor development, unclear speech, and tongue carriage dysfunction, "

Haapanen says. " These characteristics seem to form a triad to the extent that we

can talk about a syndrome that has been named `SPEEDY baby'. "

>

> The term SPEEDY refers to speed in the development of motor skills as well as

problems related to speech development (SPEE – speech and DY – developmental

verbal dyspraxia, dysphasia, tongue dysfunction).

>

> Dr Haapanen points out that physical activeness and unclear speech may have

adverse psychosocial effects and overshadow these children's true skills.

" SPEEDY babies may not receive the recognition they deserve for their advanced

motor skills and activeness and intellectual performance, because these may be

overshadowed by their problems, which cause trouble and disappointments, "

Haapanen says. " It would be important to accurately identify this particular

syndrome in these children, so that their parents and other carers could receive

appropriate and timely information and the children could thereby have the

support they need. "

>

> Journal reference:

>

> 1. Haapanen ML, Aro T and Isotalo E. SPEEDY babies: A putative new

behavioral syndrome of unbalanced motor-speech development. Neuropsychiatr Dis

Treat., 2008 Dec; 4(6):1225-33

>

> Adapted from materials provided by University of Helsinki, via AlphaGalileo.

> Email or share this story:

> Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the

following formats:

> APA

>

> MLA

> University of Helsinki (2009, April 23). SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral

Syndrome. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 23, 2009, from

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/04/090423082752.htm

>

> =====

>