Re: 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please read.

[Guest guest]

Your son sounds exactly like my son did at that age.  Reid just recently turned

three and while I don't have some fairytale story that is now talking, he has

definitely made progress.  I always suspected that he had appraxia but it was

not until the past six months that all of his therapists and doctors all

confirmed and agreed with that diagnosis.  Please don't give up on the speech

therapy.  We have found it to be a slow and constantly evolving process.  We are

on the third speech therapist since my son was 22 months and we are really

starting to see some great gains.  More recently, he has speech therapy 4x week

for 30 minutes each visit.  This schedule has really seemed to work well for him

where previously he went only once a week for 1 hour.  Also, while I know many

people have had success with Prompt speech therapy, it wasn't a good fit for my

son.  His current speech therapist may use prompts when working with him but

that is not the

only tool in her toolbox and it was with his previous therapist.  My sons

current speech includes probably 75 words and he has been beginning to put

together short two-word sentences together more and more frequently which has

been a very big deal for him.  He also will occasionally put together longer

sentences that are a combo of words/signs.

 

Please hang in there.  I definitely know exactly how you are feeling.  We have

ups and downs in dealing with Reid's appraxia all the time.  Recently, we have

been on an up trend but I remember all too well feeling that this were not

improving.  Unfornately, it is a slow process but I am now more cofident than

ever that we will get there.  Best of luck to you and your family.  I hope this

helps you feel you are not alone.

From: Cassie <cassie030281@...>

Subject: [ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please

read.

Date: Monday, June 1, 2009, 9:56 AM

Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months, but

didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey) , dog has become gah,

all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's what he

means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out starting

with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it soooo

frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter sounds, some

he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then prompt him

with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins sheepishly, or

" gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using a toy snake

and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not imitate a word.

Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's usually a catch-all

" gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to be a flop if he

doesn't even try to imitate a word.

I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is what

he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just taking a

while for the process.

Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience of

your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

[Guest guest]

my son is almost 30 months and we just found out he has apraxia. even though we

thought that was the problem 3 months ago. our speech therapist is not that

experienced with apraxia but she works for a lady that is very familiar with

apraxia.  you really need to research the therapist in your area and find one

that knows apraxia WELL.

 

i know for our baby he tries so hard to get sounds out and he settles for the

easy ones, ga, gu. we havent even started on the proefa, yet but we are seeing

changes with speech. slow but they are coming. speech not only helps with sounds

but will give you things to do at home to bring awareness to the mouth. we have

massages we do around the mouth, and they have helped.  best advice find a

speech therapist that know apraxia in young children very well.

 

no one wanted to say apraxia but, after a few sessions and ds started opening up

she saw how he struggled to get basic sounds out and how when he didnt think

about sounds he could say words. but he only says them once and they never sound

the same.

 

i hope some of this help as we are very new to apraxia ourselves.

 

sharon

 

From: Cassie <cassie030281@...>

Subject: [ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please

read.

Date: Monday, June 1, 2009, 9:56 AM

Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months, but

didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey) , dog has become gah,

all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's what he

means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out starting

with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it soooo

frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter sounds, some

he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then prompt him

with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins sheepishly, or

" gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using a toy snake

and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not imitate a word.

Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's usually a catch-all

" gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to be a flop if he

doesn't even try to imitate a word.

I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is what

he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just taking a

while for the process.

Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience of

your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

[Guest guest]

Cassie,

Oh do I know where you r coming from and I am going to keep this message short

because I am typeing this on my blackberry.... Ok first of EI suck lol just

kidding but when my son was that age they did nothing to help with the everyday

promting.. So I got a private slp and they dignoised him when no one else would,

this is because many feel there are to young for a lable blah blah u and me

don't care about a lable we want help!!! So I called 30 slps until I found the

one who listened to me and got my ds on a program that he really grew in. She

said that therapy does no good unless it will help in everyday life. I had to

learn to talk about everything I did made games in to braking down words and

never made it a chore just fun with crazy mom But my e-mail is

zoeyar8@... please email me I will help the best I can

Good luck

Zoey

Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

[ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please

read.

Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months, but

didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey), dog has become gah,

all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's what he

means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out starting

with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it soooo

frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter sounds, some

he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then prompt him

with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins sheepishly, or

" gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using a toy snake

and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not imitate a word.

Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's usually a catch-all

" gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to be a flop if he

doesn't even try to imitate a word.

I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is what

he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just taking a

while for the process.

Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience of

your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

[Guest guest]

A visit to a Pediatric Neurologist might help with a diagnosis, which has to be

made by a doctor. that may be why the SLP is hesitant- they really cant diagnose

a condition like Apraxia that is Neurological.

How many times per week did EI give you? In NY - the minimum for any speech

delay is 2x per week--less than that wont do much unless they give you lots of

homework. EI always taught me that its about teaching you to help them when they

are not there--so they should be showing you ways to help him along the rest of

the week.

>

> Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months,

but didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Cassie,

My son is three, and he's been diagnosed with apraxia, congenital

encephalopathy, and developmental coordination disorder. At two, he only

could say a dozen words or so although his speech seemed normal up until 18

months old (the words he said were pop outs so they were clear-mama, dada,

doggie, ball, cow, hey). He was in ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) until

he turned 3, and he started in the PPCD program in our school district.

Since he started in April, his word progress has improved immensely. He can

say simple sentences although the words aren't perfect. He also sings,

" Life is a Highway, " from the movie Cars (not perfectly, but some of the

words are understandable). We are hoping to continue his speech therapy

with an apraxia specialist and get him started in occupational therapy as

well this summer. Oh, his receptive language skill is out the roof by the

way. He can follow complex instructions. He's learning to recognize the

letters of the alphabet (he knows them all although he can't say them all).

His grammar is excellent although again his speech is still very garbled as

he gropes at words. He started off speaking with his mouth shut tightly and

sounding like every word was a glottal stop (his developmental pediatrician

said that it remind her of the Charlie Brown adults). Now he is speaking

with a lot more open mouthed sounds although he grinds his teeth a lot (Not

sure why).

I just wanted you to know that there is hope, and if you keep working with

them, and you let them know you believe in them, they can accomplish so

much.

Good luck with you son.

a P. Broussard

[Guest guest]

I'll give you my experience:

I live in South Jersey, outside Philadelphia. My daughter was between 12 and 18

months old when I suspected she had more than a simple speech delay. At some

point, I had read about some of the red flags for " common " speech disorders,

apraxia among them, and remembered that it clearly rang some bells. She had

limited babbling as an infant, only could say " mama " at 12 months, and a " dada "

sound unreliably. All told, she had less than 5 " words, " and even they were not

very convincing. I wouldn't say that she was so severely nonverbal or sounded

like she was deaf, the way another apraxic friend sounded when he was younger

(according to his mom), but she did grunt a lot too. Many things, we thought

were " cute " or she was just " taking her time, " but at 15-18 months, my concern

grew. The ped's referrred us to early intervention, but before that, they

suggested reading to her for the next 6 weeks to see if her language improved.

Well, not to mention the fact

that she couldn't sit still long enough to read a book, I just knew this wasn't

the obstacle. So I called EI myself and had her eval'd when she was 21 months

old. They dx'd cognitive and speech delays of greater than 25%, so she qualified

for the program. At that time, her comprehension was perceived to need more work

(don't think eval was *completely* accurate or indicative of her real skills),

and her attention span needed some work. I remember them mentioning her play was

very " immature. " I guess this meant that she handled or mouthed most toys rather

than any imaginative aspect.

So she began receiving " DI " therapy once a week with someone who happened to be

an occupational therapist. And speech was approved for 3 sessions over the

6-month period until our next eval. Yeah, 1 speech session every 2 months! I

didn't argue with it at the time, I suppose because my daughter seemed so unable

to even benefit from therapy aimed at her speech...And I was very blessed,

because the OT was wonderful! She gave me an education on concepts like sensory

integration, sensory input, seeking, etc...it was great! She helped me

understand aspects of my baby I don't know if I would have heard about until

much later, had it not been for her. The speech therapist, obviously, didn't get

far, and was nowhere near being able to provide a diagnosis. Everyone I talked

to about apraxia-the pediatricians, the speech therapist...looked at me with

that blank, polite smile of someone trying to humor or ignore a

" self-diagnosing " parent.

So, April 2008 she was eval'd. May 2008, she began weekly services with OT. This

was great, and either as a result of this, or her own development, she slowly

began to improve with regard to attention span, etc. I should mention that she

has always been very " emotional, " and prone to tantrums or screaming, possibly

as a result of her lack of speech. She, as a younger child, also had a problem

with biting others. Sibling, friends, etc. Both out of frustration, and also,

clearly, as a sensory seeking behavior. Also sometimes, believe it or not, to

show affection.

Anyway, over the 6 months, her vocab had increased to over 50 words. But as this

increased, it was clear that she was making many words with few sounds. Kind of

throaty, grunty sounds at that. At this time she was re-tested and OT was out

and weekly speech was in. I had to wait for a therapist to become available. By

the time the letter got to me that explained that NJ would reimburse me at the

state's contracting rate for private therapy, and I had researched a couple of

providers, they called me back telling me they had a therapist who would begin

in December. So I waited.

In December, I got my current SLP. I explained my concerns upfront, and the

" A-word. " She was comfortable with this, as she has had several clients, through

the years, with apraxia. In fact she told me that her general approach to kids

like mine was to give apraxia-appropriate therapy. Since kids with other

problems could benefit from it, and apraxics can ONLY benefit from this type,

she uses the general form and tailors it to each child's need. She said that as

time goes on, she'd be able to get a firm grasp on an exact Dx, but felt

uncomfortable labeling until 3 years of age.

Really, she's been great. She turned me onto The Late Talker, other websites,

and has always encouraged me to find out more, while always being able to answer

my (practically hysterical) questions and concerns. She's been like a guide

through all of this, and I am so, so grateful for her.

As a contrast, in October 2008, I took daughter to a speech clinic at the

children's hospital-a very excellent hospital, that I take my kids to

specialists there in every other area--and I have not been too pleased. They are

very nice, very professional, and I asked if they were familiar with childhood

apraxia of speech prior to evals, and they said yes. At her first eval, the SLP

didn't think that she saw anything that looked like apraxia, but she gave her

very simple tests and daughter wasn't extremely cooperative anyway. I just took

her for a re-eval in april, and again, SLP said it's a phonological processing

disorder; not apraxia. My SLP disagreed with the type of testing she did, and

didn't feel that it was an accurate Dx. She's talked to other colleagues of hers

as well, who agreed. I got the feeling from Hospital SLP that if my kid didn't

walk in with very severe apraxia, she wouldn't know what to make of it. She

certainly didn't use the Kaufman

testing or any other type of test that would have brought my daughter's obvious

inabilities to light.

if you'd like more info on this, email me.

bottom line, really I believe you should find an SLP who has treated apraxia in

young kids, and who will listen to your concerns. I used to get uptight about

not getting her diagnosed until she's 3, but I say, if you feel that it is

apraxia, get her started on appropriate therapy! you'll find out. and by then,

you'll already be on the right track.

EI can be wonderful, and I've heard it can be terrible. It definitely depends

almost solely on the quality and qualifications of the providers, who are

essentially contractors. So it's quite varied as far as repertoire of skills.

And of course, it's not a perfect system.

My daughter is almost surely going to qualify for the disabled preschool

program. She turns 3 in July. I am going to send her there (they should be doing

a summer program), where she'll get some sort of therapy. I'm not sure how much

she'll " qualify " for. This will free up some $ for us to pay for private

therapy. I plan to keep going to my SLP I was given in EI, because she happens

to also do private tx as well.

I've been fickle about the pro efa supplements, but then again, I ran out and

purchased what I could find at the Vitamin Shoppe...I've been experimenting with

other dietary things, and also giving her a good " sensory diet, " so I usually

try to have only one variable going at a time to see what works. I don't want my

baby to be a guinea pig, with all my little " experiments, " but the fish oil

thing I believe in.

Bottom line: try to find someone, almost anyone, who " believes " you. Who will

listen to your concerns and take them seriously. Even if they can't label your

son yet, it's " okay " as long as you get the therapy for it.

Oh, and in my experience, neurologist was no help. Nothing else presented itself

as signficant, and I even put my baby through an MRI, which didn't yield

anything related to the reasons I put her in (speech delay and right-sided oral

weakness).

I think that the single most important thing you can do is to find an SLP who

listens to you and treats your son accordingly, but also according to her

expertise. I'm pretty sure that ASHA's latest verbage is that an SLP is the one

who is fully qualified and knowledgeable enough to make a Dx of apraxia/other

speech disorders.

Sorry for the lengthy email, but I wanted to provide you with something that

might help you out. I've had, and still have, many ups and downs and worries

with all of this. Feel free to email me privately if you'd like.

-abby

________________________________

From: Cassie <cassie030281@...>

Sent: Monday, June 1, 2009 9:56:51 AM

Subject: [ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please

read.

Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months, but

didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey) , dog has become gah,

all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's what he

means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out starting

with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it soooo

frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter sounds, some

he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then prompt him

with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins sheepishly, or

" gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using a toy snake

and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not imitate a word.

Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's usually a catch-all

" gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to be a flop if he

doesn't even try to imitate a word.

I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is what

he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just taking a

while for the process.

Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience of

your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

[Guest guest]

Heres some info from the ASHA site.

Not all children with CAS are the same. All of the signs and symptoms

listed below may not be present in every child. It is important to have

your child evaluated by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) who has

knowledge of CAS to rule out other causes of speech problems. General

things to look for include the following:

A Very Young Child

* Does not coo or babble as an infant * First words are late, and

they may be missing sounds * Only a few different consonant and

vowel sounds * Problems combining sounds; may show long pauses

between sounds * Simplifies words by replacing difficult sounds

with easier ones or by deleting difficult sounds (although all children

do this, the child with apraxia of speech does so more often) * May

have problems eating

An Older Child

* Makes inconsistent sound errors that are not the result of

immaturity * Can understand language much better than he or she can

talk * Has difficulty imitating speech, but imitated speech is more

clear than spontaneous speech * May appear to be groping when

attempting to produce sounds or to coordinate the lips, tongue, and jaw

for purposeful movement * Has more difficulty saying longer words or

phrases clearly than shorter ones * Appears to have more difficulty

when he or she is anxious * Is hard to understand, especially for an

unfamiliar listener * Sounds choppy, monotonous, or stresses the

wrong syllable or word

Potential Other Problems

* Weakness of the lips, jaw, and/or tongue * Delayed language

development * Other expressive language problems like word order

confusions and word recall * Difficulties with fine motor

movement/coordination * Over sensitive (hypersensitive) or under

sensitive (hyposensitive) in their mouths (e.g., may not like

toothbrushing or crunchy foods, may not be able to identify an object in

their mouth through touch) * Children with CAS or other speech

problems may have problems when learning to read, spell, and write

Return to Top

<http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/ChildhoodApraxia.htm#Top>

How is childhood apraxia of speech diagnosed?

An audiologist should perform a hearing evaluation to rule out hearing

loss as a possible cause of the child's speech difficulties.

A certified-SLP with knowledge and experience with CAS conducts an

evaluation. This will assess the child's oral-motor abilities, melody of

speech, and speech sound development. The SLP can diagnose CAS and rule

out other speech disorders, unless only a limited speech sample can be

obtained making a firm diagnosis challenging.

An oral-motor assessment involves:

* checking for signs of weakness or low muscle tone in the lips, jaw,

and tongue (dysarthria

<http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/dysarthria.htm> ) *

seeing how well the child can coordinate the movement of the mouth by

having him or her imitate nonspeech actions (e.g., moving the tongue

from side to side, smiling, frowning, puckering the lips) *

evaluating the coordination and sequencing of muscle movements for

speech while the child performs tasks such as the diadochokinetic rate,

which requires the child to repeat strings of sounds (e.g., puh-tuh-kuh)

as fast as possible * examining rote abilities by testing the

child's skills in functional or " real-life " situations (e.g., licking a

lollipop) and comparing this to skills in nonfunctional or " pretend "

situations (e.g., pretending to lick a lollipop)

A melody of speech (intonation) assessment involves:

* listening to the child to make sure that he or she is able to

appropriately stress syllables in words and words in sentences *

determining whether the child can use pitch and pauses to mark different

types of sentences (e.g., questions vs. statements) and to mark off

different portions of the sentence (e.g., to pause between phrases, not

in the middle of them)

*

Have you had a hearing test to rule out problems with his hearing? thats

always the first step. We could not even start Speech in EI till we had

a hearing test done. An MRI is also done to R/O other causes fo any

speech issues your child may be having(thats what was often on the

scripts R/O is Rule Out). My 7dd had a dx of Hyrdocepahlus soon after

birth....so we had a Ped Neurologist on board from day 1...along with a

Neurosurgeon. So MRI's and CT's were part of my everyday life for at

least 2 years, her last MRI was last year.

Make sure whatever SLP you use for EI is an SLP--which means they have a

Masters Degree. There are plenty of EI Speech Therapists who are NOT

SLP's yet!!

You may not need a Ped Neuro or Dev Ped now--but they're good to have on

board to get to know your child. They are the ones who will help with

issues once you transition to the school district--preschool and beyond.

EI is Family Based===they will console you when you are overwhelmed and

are there to help with almost every concern. they bring every service

and every need to you...like a big comfy blanket. Than you see how it

really is in the school district!! Once you transition into the school

district--there isnt a therapist coming to your house anymore who will

advise you on all the issues that come up in trying to secure services

in schools!!

An SLP in EI may be able to diagnose Apraxia--but they cannot write the

scripts that are needed to get services in school. I've been told

--that ESY and regular school year services cannot begin without those

scripts in the building...and EI therapists are long gone and have moved

onto new cases and helping new families. Ped Neuro's and Dev Ped will

get to know your child at an early age and be there to support you when

you need them the most.

good luck.

>

[Guest guest]

i feel exactly the same way. My son only had about 5 words when he started

therapy. He has about 5 now, but they are not the same ones. hes been in speech

for over a year and will be 3 on july 13th...something about that date. the

only consanant sound word he uses is dada but " down " he says without the /d/.

everything else he says is basically vowel sounds. " uh-oh " , " uhuh " , " oww " and a

lot of grunting and unintelligable talking. his SLP also wont diagnose w/

apraxia but the more i read the more convienced i am. just wanted to share that

im in the same boat. just started proEFA 2 weeks ago. sorry if choppy writing im

on mobile phone. more later

[ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please

read.

Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months, but

didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey), dog has become gah,

all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's what he

means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out starting

with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it soooo

frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter sounds, some

he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then prompt him

with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins sheepishly, or

" gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using a toy snake

and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not imitate a word.

Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's usually a catch-all

" gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to be a flop if he

doesn't even try to imitate a word.

I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is what

he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just taking a

while for the process.

Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience of

your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

[Guest guest]

hi I usually do skip over posts but your caught my eye. My daughter is three and

is severly speech delayed. I can make out 3/4 of what she's trying to convey.

She had a cleft palate so she's been in therapy since 18 months. They're not

sure if her delay is realated to the cleft or apraxia. She says m sounds and

words very well mom mommy but has never said da dada or daddy and that makes my

husband sad. when she is trying to convey her wants and needs and we don't

understand she gets very frustrated. When she first started speech she would not

cooperate at all it took over a year. and still at times she won't. so we don't

push her too hard because she will get frustrated and shut down. she only says a

few words clearly and other people don't understand most of what she says. Just

try and be patient things could be worse. both of my girls were born with

sticklers syndrome and heart defects.. just try and hold on be strong for your

son. good luck.

From: Cassie <cassie030281@...>

Subject: [ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic?? Please

read.

Date: Monday, June 1, 2009, 1:56 PM

Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months, but

didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey) , dog has become gah,

all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's what he

means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out starting

with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it soooo

frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter sounds, some

he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then prompt him

with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins sheepishly, or

" gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using a toy snake

and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not imitate a word.

Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's usually a catch-all

" gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to be a flop if he

doesn't even try to imitate a word.

I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is what

he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just taking a

while for the process.

Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience of

your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

[Guest guest]

My 7dd was just the same at that age. All thru preschool (special needs ps) she

was not even saying 10 words--but was signing many, many more. I have a video of

her at probably almost 3 yrs old--she had just started saying mama--but I could

tell it was a LOT of work for her. I asked her on the video " say mama " --and she

went " dada " ....that sound was easier for her and she had been saying dada for a

while. my husband was ecstatic!!

She was just about 4 yrs old when a Ped Neurologist suggested-- " you better get

this little girl some augmentive communication before she loses the smarts she

has. " her receptive was never in question--we always knew she could understand

and process everything she heard. She didnt really take-off in speaking till she

started in our school district K class where the school district SLP uses

Kaufman--by Christmas of K--she had doubled or tripled her words!

>

> i feel exactly the same way. My son only had about 5 words when he started

therapy. He has about 5 now, but they are not the same ones. hes been in speech

for over a year and will be 3 on july 13th...something about that date. the

only consanant sound word he uses is dada but " down " he says without the /d/.

[Guest guest]

I totally know how you feel - this was my son last year.

Speech therapy thru birth to 3 was not very helpful - he didn't want to

co-operate - and they would not get agressive (2-3 x a week)like I wanted them

to.

We bought all the baby bumblebee dvd's and practiced with those - but PRO EFA's

have really helped him greatly too.

He is 3 1/2 now, potty trained, and talks more everyday - still a good year

behind his peers - but he is answering questions - repeats what we ask him, says

sentences here and there - and knows just about everything. Socially he has

really taken off this year too - I would have never thought he could be doing

this well a year ago when he only had a handful of words. Early Childhood

preschool, and a normal preschool setting have helped him tremendously too.

I also have a dear friend whose son is a year older then mine - SAME exact

scenario except he was even older then my son before he started talking - he was

non verbal at 2 and and at 3 only had a handful of words - now at 4 he is really

talking, potty trained, and going to a normal 4K next year! Throughout this all

my firend was always calm and laid back about her son and I was always going

nuts - I asked he how she kept it together and she said that " she never met an

adult that didn't talk! " I have never forgotten these words!

Good luck it will come!

Jill

>

> i feel exactly the same way. My son only had about 5 words when he started

therapy. He has about 5 now, but they are not the same ones. hes been in speech

for over a year and will be 3 on july 13th...something about that date. the

only consanant sound word he uses is dada but " down " he says without the /d/.

everything else he says is basically vowel sounds. " uh-oh " , " uhuh " , " oww " and a

lot of grunting and unintelligable talking. his SLP also wont diagnose w/

apraxia but the more i read the more convienced i am. just wanted to share that

im in the same boat. just started proEFA 2 weeks ago. sorry if choppy writing im

on mobile phone. more later

> [ ] 22 month old and speech delay or apraxic??

Please read.

>

> Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months,

but didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

>

> A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

>

> I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

>

> So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey), dog has become

gah, all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's

what he means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out

starting with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it

soooo frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter

sounds, some he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then

prompt him with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins

sheepishly, or " gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using

a toy snake and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not

imitate a word. Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's

usually a catch-all " gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to

be a flop if he doesn't even try to imitate a word.

>

> I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is

what he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just

taking a while for the process.

>

> Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience

of your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

>

[Guest guest]

Hi, my name is and I understand how you feel.I went through the same

thing and have been going through this for the past 4 years going on 5 years.The

first thing I have learned that there is a differnce between a speech delay and

Apraxia. Most doctors have a hard time diagnosing young children so they will

usually call it a speech delay. As the child becomes older such a 3 or 4 they

can pinpoint the delay better. But every child and every doctor differs. Myself

I had to go to many differnt doctors before we could pinpoint the problem. Not

to mention tons of evaluations.

A little about myself.My son was slow speaking or atempting words,by 18 months

there we very few words.By age 2 there was not much improvement.At age 2 1/2 to

3 years went spent 6 months just doing evaluations with no improvement.Fter a

year of MRI's and medication they finally diagnosed him a having apraxia.I'd

like to tell you this made me feel better to know what was wrong with him,but it

really didn't.He's now going to be 7 years old in August and he still cannot put

together a four word sentence.

Something I have found to be helpful is it is your child,no matter what doctors

or theripst tell you always question and listen to what they say. You always

have a choice.and if they start throwing terms at you your not sure about a good

doctor will explain them to you. Also some medicines are not good for young

children but they prescribe them anyway. I tried 6 different medicines till I

found a safe one that worked and a doctor that listened to me and my son,not

just looked at his chart and we need to do this test or we need to start this

medicine.I hope this helps.

If you need to talk or vent or just have questions let me know.

>

> Hi there, I have posted here a couple of times in the past couple of months,

but didn't really get a good response. I have been hesitant to post again, but I

don't know anyone else who is or have gone through what we're dealing with, and

I would like some input <please> from someone who's going through this as well.

>

> A little background, we started noticing a slight speech delay in our son when

he was 18 months old. He would only say a couple of words duh-doo (thank you)

and doe (dog). As he got older, by 21 months, he hadn't picked up that many more

words, he was at around 10. So we were sent for evals with the EI for our

county. He was found to be a candidate for speech therapy, with an expressive

language rating of around 11 months, and receptive at 24+. So far we have only

had one speech therapy session, where the SLP stated she couldn't make an

official diagnosis of a delay, or apraxia because of his limited words.

>

> I started him on one capsule of ProEFA back in April, and recently upped his

dose to two capsules. I'm still waiting on seeing results. While I can say he's

attempting more words since starting it, I've not seen much significant

improvement.

>

> So here's where we are, he can now say cookie (cuey/eekey), dog has become

gah, all done/gone is ah gah, more is dooo (? don't get that one, but that's

what he means) and just about everything that would begin with a /d/ comes out

starting with /g/. He can make the /d/ sound though, which is what makes it

soooo frustrating. I can sit and go over the alphabet and make the letter

sounds, some he will imitate, others no. The ones he does imitate, I will then

prompt him with a word beginning with that letter, and he either grins

sheepishly, or " gah " . For example, he does the /s/ perfect, we got this by using

a toy snake and making the snake sound. S words are not there. He will not

imitate a word. Certain sounds, yes, but not words. When he " imitates " , it's

usually a catch-all " gah " or " a-guh " . I'm scared the speech therapy is going to

be a flop if he doesn't even try to imitate a word.

>

> I don't know what apraxia sounds like in the early stages, or maybe this is

what he should've sounded like back when he was much younger, and it's just

taking a while for the process.

>

> Please, please, don't skip over this post. Please respond with an experience

of your child at this age. He will be 2 on the 13th of July. I am so overwhelmed

and frustrated, as well as scared for his future. It brings me to tears

everytime we try to talk.

>