Does your child have language?

[Guest guest]

I am trying to figure out if others feel the same as I do. My son is 3 years

old and is showing signs of Apraxia. " language " to me, means " words or

vocabulary " . I have always felt that my son has the words in his brain but he

can't say them correctly. His brain is not sending the right signals to his

mouth to produce speech. Does anyone feel the same way?

My biggest problem is that I feel like no one understands that. No one aka the

school district personnel can see my point of view. They keep pushing PPCD

because they say that he will learn " language " . From what I understood, they are

trying to tell me that because PPCD is so " language " enriched, that if he hears

the words over and over again, he will eventually speak it. Does that sound

right? It doesn't make sense to me. He doesn't need that. He needs one on

one, pull out speech therapy. They won't give it to him. If you are going to

have your team of experts tell me that my son is showing signs of Apraxia, then

why don't they treat it as such. They are using Kaufman with him. I was told

that twice a week is good enough and I found out that he is with different

children everytime he goes to speech. Sometimes its a group of 2, and sometimes

a group of 4.

By the way, had his ARD today and learned that " direct instruction " is one on

one therapy and it doesn't matter what setting you receive it in. " pull out " is

when they physically remove the student from a classroom setting and take him to

another room to receive speech therapy. I was basically told that even if I get

a diagnosis of Apraxia, his services won't change.

[Guest guest]

I could have written your post exactly two year ago and, unfortunately, I never

ultimately ended up with a much better result. I'm in Broward County, Florida,

and this is what the story is here...the special ed preschool program is a

language-based program. Therefore, they will not provide " language " therapy to

a child, only " speech. " And in our case, my son did not have enough language to

demonstrate a speech issue (he had a very limited vocabulary of gross

approximations at that point and he wouldn't even demonstrate that much upon

command - only spontaneously). As your district has said to you, the theory is

that the classroom, by its very nature and design, provides them with all of the

language therapy they need.

ly, it's BS in my book. I beat my head against the wall for almost two

years over this whole issue. The reality is that an apraxic child needs one on

one therapy but the school boards guidelines don't really address language

disorders. Many of those preschool programs are more designed for kids that are

just behind the curve for one reason or another. My child has always been

around tons of " language " and if he wasn't talking by then, then obviously

inundating him with language in the classroom wasn't the magic solution to all

of our problems. While it seemed that everyone completely understood and agreed

with what I was saying, the schools here actually did not have a mechanism that

would allow him to qualify for therapy. We finally began receiving speech

therapy (after a year and half in the program) when my son had enough " language "

that he was able to attempt approximations of about 50 words on some diagnostic

test. At that point, the SLP was able to evidence that he had a phonological

disorder (eg, boat was " bo " , " eat " was " ee " , etc, etc) which allowed him to

qualify for speech therapy. (He was pulled out of the classroom but there were

3 other kids with him). We were going private ST 3 x per week outside of school

so he was still getting plenty of therapy but obviously the school board was not

doing their share in my opinion. (Forgot to add that he has had an apraxia

diagnosis since day one).

He's in a special ed kindergarten class this year and since it's no longer

technically " language-based " (although in reality all special ed classes are

" language-based " ) he gets speech/language 4 times per week. I'm thankful for

that but it's preposterous to me that the system doesn't allow for that therapy

while they are in the preschool program.

If your son has at least some approximations or words, try to push for a

phonological test to see if he can at least qualify for some speech therapy

services on that level. Maybe someone on here will have some other advice on

how to get around the system. Best of luck to you!

Tia

[Guest guest]

Hi I have a 10 year old son who definatley knows what he wants to say and he

tries so hard but he can not get it from his brain to his mouth and I dont know

what else to try we just did a oat test and are going to do a porphrin test but

we already know he has metals from dr yasko testing.

[Guest guest]

Have you tried the essential fatty acids?? Fish oil!!!!!

_____

[Guest guest]

I feel exactly the same way about my 2-yr-old son. He KNOWS what words to say,

he just physically can't form his mouth to say them properly. We have one hour

of speech therapy a week, combined with one hour of occupational therapy a week,

and this seems to be an excellent combination for my son. He also takes one half

teaspoon of fish oil every day. The thing I would most strongly suggest for you

is the occupational therapy. This helps the child with the physical aspects of

speech, since we as their mothers know that they already know the language. Hope

this helps, and God bless you and your son.

[Guest guest]

I dont know if this question is for me but yes my son has been on fish oils for

5 years.

thank you

From: rxflwrs <rxflwrs@...>

Subject: RE: [ ] Does your child have language?

Date: Sunday, October 25, 2009, 11:26 PM

 

Have you tried the essential fatty acids?? Fish oil!!!!!

_____

[Guest guest]

What kind of fish oil do you give? Thank you!

From: harlinsmama777 <mewisaacs@...>

Subject: [ ] Re: Does your child have language?

Date: Monday, October 26, 2009, 9:15 AM

 

I feel exactly the same way about my 2-yr-old son. He KNOWS what words to say,

he just physically can't form his mouth to say them properly. We have one hour

of speech therapy a week, combined with one hour of occupational therapy a week,

and this seems to be an excellent combination for my son. He also takes one half

teaspoon of fish oil every day. The thing I would most strongly suggest for you

is the occupational therapy. This helps the child with the physical aspects of

speech, since we as their mothers know that they already know the language. Hope

this helps, and God bless you and your son.