Re: Question regarding language delay and apraxia

July 1, 2010

I have a son who is just over 2 1/2 and he has been diagnosed with apraxia. We

started to notice an issue about a year ago and when he had his first evaluation

at 2 I was told he had all the signs of apraxia but couldn't be diagnosed yet

due to his age. I got him into a early childhood intervention program that

labeled him as speech delayed till the diagnosis was official.

We have seen large improvements since starting and he has just started 2 word

phrases such as " my shoes " and " more please " . However as part of the apraxia he

has trouble with more complex words that involve him to use his tongue more or

his lip movements more, so words with " L " " W " " P " ect are more difficult.

I am getting ready to enter the school system with my son and and have learned

that you have to be insistant on your childs needs. As long as your son can

interact with the therapist then they should be able to give a proper evaluation

for a diagnosis.

I believe the test my son was given was the Kaufman test for apraxia and I have

been told that it is an excellent evalation test.

I hope this information can help you and your son.

>

> I'm still learning a lot about the whole world of speech and language

disorders/delays, and I have a question based on something my son's teacher told

us.

>

> Just some background ... my son's previous SLP (before we started with the

school district) diagnosed him as " suspected apraxia " , though she told me in

conversation that she was sure that's what he has. Well the school district has

always held the position that it's too early to diagnose apraxia and seem pretty

bent on digging their heels in on even considering that as a diagnosis for my

son. Consequently, they've been treating him with a group preschool class that

focuses on language, as well as a group phonology class.

>

> At the end of the school year (2 months into his time with them), his teacher

told me she thought my son's primary issue was a language delay, and not a

speech problem. And that if we focus on the language, the speech will come. So

that's what her focus has been with him.

>

> Huh?? How will that help with his apraxia? (I suppose it's possible it's

*not* apraxia, though I've had 3 different SLPs tell me they think it is.) And

how can she say his primary problem is a language delay if he can't say the

words to form phrases?

>

> So my questions are: Are language delays common with apraxia (that is, do

they go alongside an apraxia dx?)? I've always held the belief that my son

hasn't expanded his language skills because it takes so much effort for him to

say individual words, that he primarily sticks to simple phrases (e.g. 2-3 word

phrases) to communicate. What do you think about this?

>

July 2, 2010

Hi, I have a 6 year old who has Profound global apraxia -- oral, verbal and

limb, and SPD. She is doing much better now with tons of therapy but will

likely be in speech/OT/social classes for many years. This condition robs

your child of the means to develop socially because they can't

play/communicate with other kids, and tend to be off by themselves a lot.

It is also widely misdiagnosed.

It sounds like your school just doesn't get it or just doesn't want to pay.

If your son has verbal apraxia, he may have good receptive language skills

and understanding of vocabulary -- he just can't grab it and get it out. He

may also have auditory processing issues which many apraxic kids have.

Bottom line is that apraxic kids need one-on-one speech therapy with a very

experienced SLP, preferably PROMPT-trained -- so they can help your son form

the sounds to make the words, and eventually string the words into

sentences, while constantly working on word retrieval, sequencing,

associations, auditory processing, social language skills, etc. Putting an

apraxic kid in group until they have made huge progress is tortuous -- they

will sit there mute while other kids answer the questions. It could make

your son more frustrated and damage his self esteem (which is already and

issue since he knows he can't communicate like other kids).

I highly recommend getting " The Late Talker " book to get a good, fast

education on apraxia. I'm in LAUSD -- the biggest school district in the

country, and honestly I've had to do a lot of educating about the condition.

Good luck and keep reading and fighting. Don't ever give up.

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 7:50 PM, <timberwebb@...> wrote:

>

> I have a son who is just over 2 1/2 and he has been diagnosed with apraxia.

> We started to notice an issue about a year ago and when he had his first

> evaluation at 2 I was told he had all the signs of apraxia but couldn't be

> diagnosed yet due to his age. I got him into a early childhood intervention

> program that labeled him as speech delayed till the diagnosis was official.

>

> We have seen large improvements since starting and he has just started 2

> word phrases such as " my shoes " and " more please " . However as part of the

> apraxia he has trouble with more complex words that involve him to use his

> tongue more or his lip movements more, so words with " L " " W " " P " ect are

> more difficult.

>

> I am getting ready to enter the school system with my son and and have

> learned that you have to be insistant on your childs needs. As long as your

> son can interact with the therapist then they should be able to give a

> proper evaluation for a diagnosis.

>

> I believe the test my son was given was the Kaufman test for apraxia and I

> have been told that it is an excellent evalation test.

>

> I hope this information can help you and your son.

>

> >

> > I'm still learning a lot about the whole world of speech and language

> disorders/delays, and I have a question based on something my son's teacher

> told us.

> >

> > Just some background ... my son's previous SLP (before we started with

> the school district) diagnosed him as " suspected apraxia " , though she told

> me in conversation that she was sure that's what he has. Well the school

> district has always held the position that it's too early to diagnose

> apraxia and seem pretty bent on digging their heels in on even considering

> that as a diagnosis for my son. Consequently, they've been treating him with

> a group preschool class that focuses on language, as well as a group

> phonology class.

> >

> > At the end of the school year (2 months into his time with them), his

> teacher told me she thought my son's primary issue was a language delay, and

> not a speech problem. And that if we focus on the language, the speech will

> come. So that's what her focus has been with him.

> >

> > Huh?? How will that help with his apraxia? (I suppose it's possible it's

> *not* apraxia, though I've had 3 different SLPs tell me they think it is.)

> And how can she say his primary problem is a language delay if he can't say

> the words to form phrases?

> >

> > So my questions are: Are language delays common with apraxia (that is, do

> they go alongside an apraxia dx?)? I've always held the belief that my son

> hasn't expanded his language skills because it takes so much effort for him

> to say individual words, that he primarily sticks to simple phrases (e.g.

> 2-3 word phrases) to communicate. What do you think about this?

> >

>

July 5, 2010

You should read the late talker book because it will help with the IEP. I

learned that it's better to get the diagnosis from a private speech therapist

and doctor and not just the school. Kate

>

> I'm still learning a lot about the whole world of speech and language

disorders/delays, and I have a question based on something my son's teacher told

us.

>

> Just some background ... my son's previous SLP (before we started with the

school district) diagnosed him as " suspected apraxia " , though she told me in

conversation that she was sure that's what he has. Well the school district has

always held the position that it's too early to diagnose apraxia and seem pretty

bent on digging their heels in on even considering that as a diagnosis for my

son. Consequently, they've been treating him with a group preschool class that

focuses on language, as well as a group phonology class.

>

> At the end of the school year (2 months into his time with them), his teacher

told me she thought my son's primary issue was a language delay, and not a

speech problem. And that if we focus on the language, the speech will come. So

that's what her focus has been with him.

>

> Huh?? How will that help with his apraxia? (I suppose it's possible it's

*not* apraxia, though I've had 3 different SLPs tell me they think it is.) And

how can she say his primary problem is a language delay if he can't say the

words to form phrases?

>

> So my questions are: Are language delays common with apraxia (that is, do

they go alongside an apraxia dx?)? I've always held the belief that my son

hasn't expanded his language skills because it takes so much effort for him to

say individual words, that he primarily sticks to simple phrases (e.g. 2-3 word

phrases) to communicate. What do you think about this?

>

July 6, 2010

no language impairments do not go hand in hand with apraxia. Verbal

apraxia in itself is a motor planning impairment and does not affect receptive

or cognitive ability. It is however very typical professionals with little

knowledgeable about apraxia to assume there are impairments to language vs

developmental lags in language development due to the expressive impairment of

apraxia. It is also typical for apraxia to be multifaceted, so in other words

there is probably more than just motor planning issues of speech, however again

that doesn't mean there are receptive or cognitive issues and based on our group

over the past decade that appears to be rare as so many in our group are

mainstreamed and good students when the parents learn how to advocate and work

with the right private professionals to help.

Yes both speech and language impairments can exist together, but it again isn't

a given and you would probably want a second or even third opinion to determine

if the issue is an impairment or developmental lag in language when you have a

child with an impairment of expressive ability. It takes advocacy and private

evaluations from speech and medical professionals to combat this or yes your

child (with any type of severe expressive speech impairment) will be pegged as

having a language impairment/learning disability etc. as well or instead as you

are hearing. Take this as a warning that you need action on behalf of your

child now. Below is a huge archive which I believe covers this topic...but if

not please let me know.

In short however just want to say that I could give you one example after

another where a professional underestimated or misdiagnosed an apraxic child

-but they rose above in spite of that due to parent advocacy from seeking

outside help from professionals that do have knowledge. It's why we need

awareness for apraxia.

Re: school

I 100 percent agree with you to fight to keep him in the mainstream and want to

go one step further to say I'd seek second opinions on the LD classification on

top of his apraxia. Apraxia even though a neurological motor planning

impairment, typically creates developmental lags in language. However as you

are seeing these children are able to make over a year's gain in a year's time.

The words I would start using would be verbal disabled and you can in addition

to due process contact the US Department of Civil Rights through the US

Department of Education and tell them that you have a verbal disabled son and

want to file a complaint against your district who is judging your son's ability

on his disability.

The whole communication impairment goes hand in hand with learning disabilities

is a bunch of garbage. In our group for those children who

are apraxic, and many times not just with symptoms in speech -but multifaceted

communication impairments -they are able to be mainstreamed and due to

incredible recall (I'll put a message from our fb page at http://www.apraxia.org

for you to read on this) are in many cases top students. Not just a few can be

this -but as apraxia in itself is not a cognitive nor receptive disorder -and

average number!

Here's what I still think is a great source of info for type of reading programs

-but I found that just like in teaching how to talk -you will find it beneficial

to use some of the same multi sensory techniques to teach reading.

Multisensory educational techniques

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/mssl_methods.html Love that link -so

much info that is helpful -you can also check out this

http://www.ldaamerica.org/about/position/print_reading_learning.asp Also do you

have outside the school professionals (SLP, OT, neuroMD) working with your child

that can write letters to help you advocate?

What I would also suggest highly is to seek private testing from professionals

who are knowledgeable about verbal impairments. I have found those that work

with the hearing impaired are generally more aware and have less stigma in

assuming that verbal impairments go hand in hand with learning disabilities.

Also if the school believes that strongly your child belongs in a self contained

class I would seek out of district placement where the professionals don't

classify him as " learning disabled " at six years old (!!! can I kick them in the

shins? Please?) and provide your young child a better chance of not falling

through the cracks.

It doesn't matter how hard you have to fight to advocate for your child -it's

worth it. I would like to say it's easy once you get past a certain point -but

unfortunately society itself assumes even an adult with a mild articulation

problem has lower cognitive ability. And you'll still hear expressions like

" he's so smart he started talking so young " Ability to verbally express

yourself and IQ do not go hand in hand. All one has to do to learn this is

watch any daytime court TV shows!

As far as the actual programs they are using -Tanner has used just about

everything under the sun -but below is what worked for us. And the other thing

I highly suggest you explore with your child's pediatrician ASAP is starting

nutriiveda. http://www.pursuitofresearch.org It may appear as if that has

nothing to do with academics- but it appears to help stimulate numerous areas of

progress and academics is just one of them. Don't ask me how yet -but if

serving a healthy " carnation instant breakfast " type protein shake to my son

helps -why not?! You can read some of the gains here

http://pursuitofresearch.org/letter_lisa.html and here on the survey you can

print out http://pursuitofresearch.org/survey.html

Here are previous to nutriiveda methods I used to help with getting my son up to

speed from our fb page at http://www.apraxia.org

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

I know we spoke already earlier -but here's some of the information I've

archived for you from over the years of what we have found in our group.

I have an observation that I wanted to point out to see if others are finding

the same in their school age children.

Tanner has been mainstreamed since kindergarten -and a great student.

http://www.cherab.org/information/familiesrelate/letter.html

Still this year in second grade Tanner is a whiz at school -but it's clear he

still does things his own way to achieve success.

Last year in first grade Tanner's teacher said to me " It's odd because

developmentally children at Tanner's age need visual cues for math, but he

doesn't. Tanner's just doing it in his head and I don't know how "

Last year Tanner couldn't tell us how. He would just say he didn't know how.

Tanner just told me how this year. As I've pointed out Tanner and many other

children with speech impairments like him appear to have amazing memories. It

appears that is how he was and is able to do math in his head:

Tanner's homework the other night were pre algebra addition problems. Tanner

does his homework on his own because in his words it's " so easy " On the page for

example it said 6 + 7 + 6 = ___ and Tanner looked at it and said " That's so easy

it's 19 " He never added up anything on the paper so I said " Tanner how do you

know it's 19? " He pointed to each of the three numbers on the paper and said " 5,

10, 15 and then 1 plus 2 plus 1 " In other words he knew that there was a 5 in

each of the three numbers so he auto knew it was 15 -and to that number he added

the extra 4. He was not taught to do math this way by the school -he just does

it auto in his head this way.

Tanner has memorized math problems like 9 + 9, 8 + 8, even 12 + 12 etc. which is

why he tests so well. And he works around those problems he doesn't have

memorized yet by using those he does. For example, if you say 9 + 8 -he doesn't

use his fingers like some kids do -he either quick thinks of 9 + 9 or 8 + 8 and

then either adds or takes away one to get the right answer. He seems to do this

until he memorizes which in his case doesn't appear to take that long. But with

memory it appears that it's still important to make sure Tanner is 'on' prior to

going to school. On the way to school we need to make sure he reads at least one

page to get his motor planning for reading ready for school. We are now reading

" Puppy Puzzle " but some days it's a page of " Harry Potter " Once his motor

planning for reading is 'on' Tanner can read almost anything at this point.

What do I mean by 'on'? Tanner as I wrote last year is " reading well and can

easily read a word like 'oxygen' correctly and without hesitation, but when not

warmed up will come to a word that he typically knows and that is really easy

like 'at' and read it as " ate " instead. Or even come to a word like 'the' and

say " what's that word again? " Like he has a block. When I correct him he says

" Oh that's right, I forgot " The kid with the amazing memory in so many other

areas. I never make a big deal of it -we just focus on " reading with feeling " as

I write below. Just like it was never there -he starts reading perfectly...until

the next day when he needs another warm up to get his motor planning for reading

on. Not sure if I should call it that- but just like speech there appears to be

some overlaps in the unusual patterns of reading.

Anyone else with school age children seeing these types of things?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~start of archive~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those who have not read it yet: below are some archives on reading and

speech impairments up till now:

About reading/spelling.

One of the best pages I found for multisensory language programs including the

Spalding method (Writing Road to Reading) you speak of is here

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6332 Actually there are many programs talked

about at this link that are wonderful! I again suggest to all of you to print

this out and save it in your child's file just in case. Links don't always work

for ever, or even for the year it takes for you to need it.

Like you, I found the little tricks to remember the rules work extremely well

for Tanner who like Suzi's child (and most children here) have amazing memories

which helps with all the rules. After all in reading -there are many rules and

changes -so memory is important.

I just want to state prior to going on -for those asking questions about

preschool children with apraxia/speech impairments not remembering colors and

numbers -they are busy working on more severe issues right now than other

children their age -so they have much more on their plate. There is proof that

learning academics early vs later makes no difference in the long run -and even

some evidence that too much academic pressure in the early years can be

detrimental Here is just one research study:

Research Link / When Children Aren't Ready for Kindergarten

H. Holloway

How can schools promote the achievement of children who are old

enough to enroll in kindergarten but who are not developmentally

ready to succeed? Two approaches that parents and schools commonly

use are delaying the child's entry into kindergarten and retaining

the child in kindergarten for an extra year.

Giving children an extra year, whether through delayed entry or

kindergarten retention, makes sense in view of the ample research

suggesting that the youngest children tend to lag behind their

classmates. West, Denton, and Reaney (2000) found that in the spring

of their kindergarten year, younger children had lower reading and

mathematics knowledge and skills on average than did their older

counterparts. These researchers also found that older kindergartners

were more likely to persist at tasks, more eager to learn, and

better able to pay attention.

Delayed Entry Versus Kindergarten Retention

To avoid the disadvantage suffered by younger students, some parents

choose to delay the entry of their children into kindergarten. Zill,

Loomis, and West (1997) found that children whose kindergarten entry

was delayed so that they started kindergarten when they were older

performed better than their younger classmates in grades 1 and 2.

These researchers concluded that the extra year before starting

kindergarten does not harm the children who are held out and may

help most of them.

In contrast, the researchers discovered that children who repeated

kindergarten were doing worse than their younger classmates on most

school performance indicators by 1st or 2nd grade. For instance, two-

thirds of the retained students had received some negative feedback

from teachers compared with less than half of the nonretained

students. The retained students were also much more likely to have

problems concentrating, to perform below their capabilities, and to

act up and disrupt the class. Zill, Loomis, and West concluded that

repeating kindergarten had not helped those children and may have

actually made matters worse.

Reasons for the Differences

What explains the difference between the school performance of

delayed-entry children and those who repeat kindergarten? Both

groups of students are older than most of their classmates, so why

don't the beneficial effects of being older apply to both groups?

Some possible answers are that

The underlying developmental problems of the two groups may differ.

The two groups may have different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Parents who choose to delay their children's school entry may have a

higher level of awareness and involvement.

The stigmatizing effect of being required to repeat a grade may harm

children's academic progress.

(read full article)

http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200304/holloway.html

There is much more on this. In researched studies -those children who read early

are no farther along than those who read later. Tanner seemed to know his

letters at 3 and 4 years old, at least most of the time -but it was honestly not

something that I cared about as much as getting him up to speed in being able to

talk. With the daily therapy and school, I felt bad Tanner didn't have much " kid

time " and tried to make the time out of therapy and school fun for him. Didn't

work well. Most of the time Tanner would just sleep in his free time he was so

exhausted from the long days of therapy and school. I felt he missed so much,

but on the other hand we couldn't not do the therapy. I did the research and

knew that school work could and should take a back seat during Tanner's

preschool years.

Tanner didn't start kindergarten until 6 years old and was one of the top in his

mainstream class according to his teacher Mrs. . He was " reading ready "

when he graduated kindergarten. He started reading over the summer, his favorite

book was " Hop on Pop " Because Tanner transitioned out of OT at the end of

kindergarten - and he seemed ready and willing to learn reading and other

academics, we switched him to a private accelerated academics academy school.

When Tanner started first grade he was the only one in his class who was a

beginner reader since most of his friends now were fluent readers since

kindergarten. Tanner was pretty much the only child we knew with a speech

impairment in the school. As one of the other toy inventors I used to work with

used to say " The proof is in the pudding " In spite of the fact that Tanner

didn't start working on reading skills until later -Tanner has been a straight A

student in all subjects.

With intensive therapy and all the stress of not being able to communicate

simple needs well, many of our children in preschool years don't have the same

amount of kid time with no pressure " normal " kids have -don't underestimate the

importance of play. They not only will catch up when they are ready if given the

chance -they 'can' surpass others. Again in this group we are reporting many of

our children that are " late talkers " have incredible memories -that's a great

asset for being a top student!

Some of the tricks to say that worked for Tanner:

For the silent 'E' which turns the word mad into the word made for example

All I would have to say if Tanner hesitated (which on this word he wouldn't)

" the A is kicked " and Tanner would know the E is silent and the A " says it's

name " . Reason -because the E used all it's energy to kick the A to say it's name

-so now it's silent.

I also say for silent letters like the 'H' in the word ghost. " The H has apraxia

and is still learning to talk, but you'll hurt it's feelings if you forget he's

there "

Tanner gets 100% on spelling each week, no matter how difficult the spelling

words are. I found the best way to teach him the words is to use multisensory

fun ways. This is just two of them -I'll write the letters on his back as he

says them for each word...but if he says the wrong letter I don't write

it....play game show where we take turns being the contestant and game show host

-jumping up and down etc. Either Glenn, Dakota or I are the ones who get the

answers spelled wrong (we change our voices and pretend we are someone else.

We'll sound out the word wrong and spell it wrong. I try to think of how a

speech impaired child will say the word and spell it that way) and Tanner is

always the one that is the contestant to spell it right. If Tanner is the game

show host -one of us will get it right -but the first one will get it wrong.

Tanner always laughs and has to correct us. For the one that won - he'll have to

say what prize they won. We also do " teacher " where I'm the student and he

teaches me the words -warns me about the silent letters -etc.

I found that even though Tanner will spell each word right if given one at a

time -if he has to put the words in a sentence -he broke down and spelled words

he knows wrong. Once I told him to think of each word separate - " think game

show " -he spells them right.

When Tanner is reading long more complex words such as for example last night

-circulatory (he's learning about blood cells now) he needs a cue to break it

down. For example on his own last night when I said " Just break it down Tanner

and think of it as four words " Tanner picked up a Jimmy Neutron Mc's toy

and for each syllable he said -as he said it -he turned the toy's head.

Sometimes his apraxia gets in the way of reading certain words at first. He'll

read the word and say the last sound wrong -or the middle sound wrong. I'll

correct him and point to the missed letter. He'll repeat the word and hesitate

at the letter in question -visibly trying hard to say it right -but again say it

wrong. We'll go over this a few times until I clap my hands -or give him some

other cue to break it down. Once he says it right - I'll have him repeat it over

and over at least three times. I'll then say the word about ten times over and

over until he says " All right already! " and then we'll move on. If when we get

to the word again he hesitates -I just have to clap or give a cue and he says

" Oh yeah " and says it right very quickly. Then he just gets it on his own.

Even though your daughter is now in second grade, due to her history of apraxia

and even given the learning disabilities that run in the family, it may not be

that she isn't reading at age level because she has an underlying learning

disability as much as she may need that extra development time to learn to read

just like she needed that extra developmental time to learn to talk.

Learning to talk and learning to read. I can tell you as a parent that there are

overlaps in how to teach both -and it's important to remember they are linked.

Both require multisensory more so than in most children because our children may

not be utilizing the same area of the brain as others to learn to read. However

-once they learn -they have the potential to be superior students if you can

maintain a healthy self esteem.

Typically a child will learn to overcome apraxia through strategies, sometimes

enough that it's not detectable to the untrained ear. But it's important to

remember that communication needs become increasingly complex as the child ages,

and school demands go from extremely simple (kindergarten) to extremely complex

within a relatively short period of time. Once a child breaks down in their

ability to keep up -they are stuck while the rest go on.

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

" Statistically, more American children suffer long-term life-harm from the

process of learning to read than from parental abuse, accidents, and all other

childhood diseases and disorders combined. In purely economic terms, reading

related difficulties cost our nation more than the war on terrorism, crime, and

drugs combined. " We need to reconceptualize what it means to learn to read and

who's responsible for its success if we're going to deal with the problem. " -

Dr. Grover Whitehurst, Director Institute of Education Sciences, Assistant

Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education (9-10-03 Children of the

Code interview).

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/cotcintro.htm

For personal reasons as he's now a " tween " I am going to remove the name of the

following child that I know ;-)

I can tell you we always kept _____ laughing -and always used multisensory. We

would sit at dinner and I would say " Let's play a game. I'm going to say a word

and everyone change one letter to make another word " This one is great to work

on with a bunch of letters (you can use the fridge ones -they are pretty cheap

and then you can play in the car) so you can pass the " word " around. Took ____

awhile to want to play. For the longest time he just sat and listened to/watched

us -which was fine with me. I wasn't sure if he got the concept of rhyming

-which to me is a fun way to learn to read -even though in academic theory it's

not always the best way to learn...but I then found that by taking _____ to

Seussville at Universal and reading all the Dr. Seuss books took off. My

recommendation -Hop On Pop is an awesome book for children with speech problems

-and was _____ favorite. Actually if your child isn't reading at all yet -also

get a book called Hug -- by Jez Alborough. Almost every page has one word on

it... " Hug " which can be said in all different ways with different

voices/meanings -it's an awesome book for a number of reasons.

____ seemed to like to turn the pages of the book Hug and " read " to us. After

awhile -he got into changing his voice. At first he just read the word the same

way throughout. Like us he was " reading " (even though there are only a few

different words in the whole book) and of course we made a big deal about " how

advanced " ____ was that he could " read an entire book! " and " Look how big of a

book it is! " Hug was not meant as a book for a six year old like _____which is

how old he was when I found it for him -it's meant for babies. I didn't care.

Like most other kids we were not working on reading prior to Kindergarten -we

were working on speech -and outside of that I wanted him to be a kid, and there

wasn't enough time in the day for all of it. So reading based on my research

could take a back burner. (there are studies on this I've posted in the

archives)

I bought a " baby " book for ___ because in my mind I needed books for him that

were so easy they would raise his confidence. Add confidence to the list of most

important things you can give your child. Right after reading his " confidence "

books -he's ready to learn -he's ready for the " hard " books.

After having ____ read Hug alone -together we used to read " harder " books -at

first back then -Dr. Seuss. Back then -Hug was his warm up. I would both let ___

sound out -and I would read to him and let him read back after me (think

modeling when we teach them to talk) Then Dr. Seuss was his warm up -and now

Danny and the Dinosaur is his warm up. His warm up of today was his " hard " book

of yesterday. I believe that children like _____ need warm up time to get their

motor planning going.

Hard words are just words with silent letters (they are learning to talk ____

-they want to be there but don't make any sound yet) or long words (let's break

this up to little words) and we use the same visual or auditory cues for long

words in reading we use for long words in speech -clapping -fingers etc. So next

time your child is trying to break down " snug " don't break it down to s -n -u-

g. Try this and let me know how it goes. Break it into " Sn " " u " " g " and use

three fingers to cue for each sound. Point to the Sn and cover the ug -and say

" sn " and put up one finger. Then cover the sn and g so she only sees the " u " and

put up two fingers and say 'U " and then do the same for the g (cover the rest)

and use three fingers and say " g " At first each word is like pulling teeth -but

then it clicks and they just click. Again -think warm up.

Also going with all the knowledge of " right brained " vs " left brained " I tried

to keep his reading as much as possible to the " right brain " I noticed with

reading that if I have him concentrate on reading " with feeling " voice

inflections, and we laugh and have fun with it -he reads much faster and more

fluent than ever! I of course go crazy saying " Wow you can be an actor you read

so well! " or I laugh because he reads it so funny -(cute) I do believe it's

tricking his brain into using another area -kind of like the singing vs. talking

aspect that is well documented for stutterers. For those that are diagnosed

later in life with apraxia/dyspraxia you could try drama classes where they

memorize a script. Same concept of reading (with feeling) and using that right

hemisphere.

" For Tanner...if I listened to all the professionals outside of knowledgeable

ones like Dr. Agin: I would have believed he is " just " a late talker and would

not have pushed for evaluations/EI I would have believed all that I read at the

only two websites for apraxia when Tanner was first diagnosed. Which meant -no

such thing as oral apraxia, low tone/hypotonia in someone Tanner's age. I would

have believed that Tanner may never talk because " it depends " I would have

believed that " speech impaired students are prone to being learning disabled "

I just had a great conversation with Dr. Rosenthal the other day. All of you may

want to start trying to put his research to practice.

Read this and believe it's true about your speech impaired child:

A child with any disability will compensate for this disability by being

stronger in other areas than normal. Due to this -if given the chance,

multisensory exposure, and belief in them -children that have expressive speech

problems may be better at reading and writing than normal.

I know that is not what research shows....yet. But it's what our group has

proven for now a decade in that the majority in our group have children doing

well in the mainstream. That will be proven once there is more advocacy for the

verbal disabled. We already know the power of " self fufilling prophecy " believe

speech impaired child will have problems in school -and you'll be right.

Quote from Dr. Rosenthall's work. I suggest all of you that care for

speech impaired children read this to understand the ignorance against the huge

and growing population. Speech impairments are NOT linked to learning

disabilities -but due to ignorance and slanted research from those that believe

this -they made that a reality for some. Our group has proven this false.

" For ethical reasons, the Oak School experiment only focused on favorable or

positive expectations and their impact on intellectual competence, but it is

reasonable to infer that unfavorable expectations could also lead to a

corresponding decrease in performance. Often, these negative expectations are

based on appearances and other factors that have little to do with actual

intellectual ability "

http://www.facultydirectory.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/pub/public_individual.pl?faculty=534

Do not underestimate our children -they may not just make it -they may excel

above " normal " kids if given the chance (and the belief in them) And for good

reason.

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

My theory is that because our children don't learn to talk like everyone else

-that in contrast to the popular experience that most speech impaired children

will have learning disabilities -if treated correctly -our kids may actually in

many ways be even better students than most.

Most of us have found our children have these die hard memories! Not a normal

memory for a " normal " child -most kids you can get to forget a point by bringing

up something else that interests them -not many of the children in this group!

(of course you can never say " always " -just more often than not. Just like the

trouble blowing the nose thing that I first brought up -this is yet another

observation you will not read about in books...yet) When Tanner learns his

spelling words -he not only knows how to spell even hard words -he tells me the

word on the list (of ten each week) and then spells it -like his memory is a

picture he can just look at.

Perhaps -due to using a different pathway and developing such pathway -they have

an edge we don't yet understand.

You may want to read up on Helen Keller. My son was schooled in preschool in an

oral based school for the hearing impaired/deaf. You don't have to talk to be

able to read.

" I knew then that 'w-a-t-e-r' meant the wonderful cool something that was

flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope,

joy, set it free! "

Helen Keller 1880-1968

American writer and lecturer

http://www.theglassceiling.com/biographies/bio20.htm

July 9, 2010

Thanks for all the replies.

Just some follow up ... my son just started back up with his private SLP this

week (after almost 3 months of just his school group and no indiv. therapy). I

went over the teacher's comments with her, and she's going to do some sort of

language assessment with him to see where she thinks he's at. She's always had

a great rapport with my son, which I think helps him " perform " better in the

assessments. My son (like my other children) is shy with strangers and doesn't

test well unless he knows and has a good rapport with the tester. So it will be

interesting to see what our private SLP's thoughts are on his progress after not

seeing him for 4 months.

I have to say, after just 2 private sessions this week, I feel such a huge sense

of relief to have my son back with our SLP, and hopefully on track to the great

progress he was making with her at the beginning of the year!

>

> no language impairments do not go hand in hand with apraxia. Verbal