The untrodden path 4/06

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The Untrodden Path

Submitted by Jeanne Buesser

This article is written from a parent's point of view. I am not a

speech language Pathologist, occupational therapist, physical

therapist, or physician.

Before becoming parents, we are unaware how things suddenly change,

or how our perspectives of things are. Then before you know it you're

carrying your child in your belly, waiting for its arrival. The child

is born. The unknown things about being a new mom. In your head you

start asking questions at yourself, not knowing what to expect.

Will my child be healthy? How will I know if there is a problem? What

if I don't know the right questions to ask? If you ask a question to

your regular doctor and they don't know the answer, what then? What

happens next? Do you know what questions to ask? Will my child babble

or coo? How about sitting up? Crawling? Feeding Issues? Sensory

Issues?

First you take the infant to the doctor for a check up, maybe you

don't know the right questions to ask. Go with your gut instinct. Ask

you mother if you had any delays or problems when you were small. If

your child isn't making cooing or babble it could be a indication of

a problem. Get a 2nd opinion with a developmental pediatrician first,

to also rule out other things.

Also make an appointment with the Early Intervention Services in your

town. You can do that by calling the Board of Education by looking in

the phone book and getting their number that way, and then having

your child evaluated. What if my child is diagnosed with Apraxia.

What is it? Its symptoms?

Apraxia is a severe neurological speech disorder that affects the way

the children process the information in the brain the try to produce

the sounds of speech. There is a loose link which prevents the

beginning sounds of speech . So the children don't have the

recollection of what the

sounds are to start a word. Many children are quiet babbies with

little sounds or babbling. Children with Apraxia are very smart. Some

think that because your child isn't verbal they are mentally

retarded - not so. They know and understand what you are saying and

want to respond but are unable too.

There are 4 types of apraxia, limb, verbal, oral, global. Limb-

pertains to certain parts of the body, arms and legs, Verbal-Oral

pertain to the mouth, cheeks, tongue, lips areas. These last two are

used a lot. Many children also have texture feeding or sensory

issues, light, hair cutting, clothing, problems eatings too.

What about them sitting up properly? See how your child sits up. How

is Their muscle tone? Can they balance themselves? Can they

throw/kick a ball? Children also have low muscle tone- called

hypotonia. Which Is how the body holds itself up., muscle weakness in

face, arms, legs,

trunk, how they walk too. Many of these questions can be answered by

the Early Intervention team , ie Speech Language Pathologist,

Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Developmental

Pediatrician.

The therapies they need are intense speech therapy and occupational

therapy. Many have fine or gross motor issues as well. Ie, grasping a

pencil or crayon properly, or having a hard time writing copying

letters.

What about speech therapy, how much do they need? More speech is

better 5x a week is better then 1x. It also depends on your child and

their severity and how much they will tolerate also, and their age.

Apraxia can also be mild to severe with children. You have to be

careful with the diagnosis too. Children who get misdiagnosed , ie

Autism who don't have the autistic tendencies with get the wrong

treatment or be put in the wrong classes/placements. It will only get

them more frustrated, like using Assisted Behavior Analysis (ABA) is

a great technique but not for children who don't have autistic

tendencies, and only have Apraxia. They might also pick up behaviors

which they didn't have before. The other difference is with Apraxia

is a speech disorder versus Autism is a language disorder. The

children with autism can say the full word even if you have to prompt

it out, but the children with Apraxia cannot even produce the

beginning sound of the word.

All in all, these children can be helped. It isn't a quick fix like

getting a band-aid for a cut, But with intense therapy, they get

better slowly. You just have to have patience. A great resource is a

book for parents and professionals. The late talker by