Re: Once apraxic, always apraxic?

February 10, 2010

NOOOO!!!- it is neurological and there can be regression in some, many improve

and many can completely recover---but that does not make it NOT neurological.

Apparently she does NOT read the ASHA documents or does not believe in them. I'd

be careful about her conclusions that he no longer has apraxia in this case as

well.

She could be right, and maybe he never did have apraxia. But for those who

do---it is most certainly a NEUROLOGICAL condition, most often with metabolic

processing underpinnings due to oxidative stress--be it chemical or physical or

both.

Be careful, this SLP does NOT know what she is talking about to state that

apraxia is not neurological. it isn't if it isn't apraxia--but she should not

make these blanket statements about a severe neurological disorder plaguing more

and more children. Good luck!

Elena

From: kalihi76 <kaliki76@...>

Subject: [ ] Once apraxic, always apraxic?

Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 5:01 PM

My son has speech apraxia. I always viewed it as a neurological disorder.

However, after a session with his SLP the other week, she was commenting on how

much progress my son has made and if she were to see him today for the first

time, she'd diagnose him with " articulation disorder. " For one, I'm thrilled

he's improving, but I guess I thought, if apraxia is a neurological disorder

it's always with you, even though you can retrain your brain so to speak...

My SLP said there is no hard evidence to say apraxia is neurological, and you

can have it at one time but not forever. " We say it's neurological to get

insurance to pay for it " is what she told me.

Any comments?

------------------------------------

February 11, 2010

You don't say your son's age but yes once apraxic always apraxic which is why

the name childhood apraxia of speech is so mean and horrible. Yes the children

grow and some do learn to " overcome " it...but take that individual and put them

under stress -or listen to them when they are sick or having to express

something complex -say in an emergency and they will still have times they will

break down.

Look at Radcliffe talking about his dyspraxia (which in his case is of

the body but same thing)

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b24227_daniel_radcliffes_dyspraxia_diagnosis.htm\

l

I find it shocking that an SLP will say that the neurologically based motor

planning disorder apraxia is only called a neurological condition to get it

covered by insurance. If that was the case we wouldn't call it " developmental "

or " childhood " apraxia of speech which implies it's just a childhood condition!

I'm not even a speech pathologist and know the schooling one needs to go through

-surely she had to learn that the mouth and tongue and breath control as well as

speech are controlled by...what would she say? (do I even want to know? no)

My advice based on the ignorance is to find another SLP -good ones are like

gold, mediocre ones are pretty much anywhere easy to find and the poor

ones....they should find another job so nobody can find them!

Just because one is always apraxic doesn't mean that they can't be an actress or

a teacher or anything they want. One day soon I wish I can share our Hollywood

TV and movie star actress who is yes a TEEN WITH APRAXIA that was first

misdiagnosed as autistic ....I'm just waiting for the right moment and think

it's coming. After all we need to find someone to play in the movie

right?

And it 'is' possible that your child was misdiagnosed and was never apraxic to

begin with -and if this is the SLP that diagnosed it I wouldn't be shocked at

all.

=====

February 11, 2010

My son is 4yrs old. I'm going to talk to the SLP some more. She has been the

first SLP out of 3 we've been to, to make great strides with my son. I found her

on a Kaufman link - she goes to almost every Kaufman conference she

can(among others). She owns this SLP business (with another therapist). I

thought I was choosing the right one b/c of her training & experience with

apraxia (or so I thought).

Out of 4 therapists - they've all agreed it's speech apraxia, so I don't know if

this is a case of mistaken diagnosis. And he had/has all the classic signs of

speech apraxia.

This is now kind of frustrating. I thought we were on a great path...

>

> You don't say your son's age but yes once apraxic always apraxic which is why

the name childhood apraxia of speech is so mean and horrible. Yes the children

grow and some do learn to " overcome " it...but take that individual and put them

under stress -or listen to them when they are sick or having to express

something complex -say in an emergency and they will still have times they will

break down.

>

> Look at Radcliffe talking about his dyspraxia (which in his case is of

the body but same thing)

>

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b24227_daniel_radcliffes_dyspraxia_diagnosis.htm\

l

>

> I find it shocking that an SLP will say that the neurologically based motor

planning disorder apraxia is only called a neurological condition to get it

covered by insurance. If that was the case we wouldn't call it " developmental "

or " childhood " apraxia of speech which implies it's just a childhood condition!

>

> I'm not even a speech pathologist and know the schooling one needs to go

through -surely she had to learn that the mouth and tongue and breath control as

well as speech are controlled by...what would she say? (do I even want to know?

no)

>

> My advice based on the ignorance is to find another SLP -good ones are like

gold, mediocre ones are pretty much anywhere easy to find and the poor

ones....they should find another job so nobody can find them!

>

> Just because one is always apraxic doesn't mean that they can't be an actress

or a teacher or anything they want. One day soon I wish I can share our

Hollywood TV and movie star actress who is yes a TEEN WITH APRAXIA that was

first misdiagnosed as autistic ....I'm just waiting for the right moment and

think it's coming. After all we need to find someone to play in the

movie right?

>

> And it 'is' possible that your child was misdiagnosed and was never apraxic to

begin with -and if this is the SLP that diagnosed it I wouldn't be shocked at

all.

>

> =====

>

February 11, 2010

Bottom line is that your son is progressing. The difference between a delay and

a disorder is that with or without therapy a child with a delay will make

progress -but with an impairment one would have the best prognosis with a good

therapist. Does your child have any signs of apraxia outside of speech? Have

you been for a neuroMD exam?

In the long run who really cares if what your child has is called apraxia or

it's just a simple delay in speech and he was misdiagnosed. As long as he is

talking -that of course is the most important. But if she really was an expert

in apraxia then she would be aware that apraxia is a neurologically based motor

planning impairment that can affect speech, breath control, motor planning in

the body and any combination. She would also be aware that it's rare today for

an apraxic child to 'just' have apraxia of speech as today in most cases it's

multifaceted. Most with apraxia today have some sort of " soft signs " such as

mild hypotonia, sensory issues and there is the FoxP2 gene and other genetic

markers that we are still learning about. There are SPECT scans that show the

differences between the right and left hemisphere of those with speech delays.

Some do very well at overcoming apraxia- all the aspects of it. My son Tanner

for example is now 13 and mainstreamed and doing great but he'll tell you

himself that if he's tired or not feeling well he gets a bit " bumpy " (regresses

a bit) He could tell this SLP himself -he'd have no problem doing so -but

clearly she doesn't work with children that are apraxic and grew up with it. I

mean look at http://littlemermaidmelanie.wordpress.com/about/

A speech impairment is a speech impairment. As Earl (a spokesperson

for the Stuttering Foundation) is quoted to say " once a stutterer always a

stutterer "

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888 & dat=19791020 & id=Mf8NAAAAIBAJ & sjid=bXwD\

AAAAIBAJ & pg=6430,3246611

Stuttering is a much more well known motor planning disorder of speech- but is a

motor planning disorder as well.

Clearly Earl has overcome stuttering most of the time to be one of

the greatest voices of all times in movies =but as he'll tell you even today

-he still occasionally stutters. Ignorance is understandable in the general

public -it's really annoying when it's from a professional in speech who claims

to be well versed in apraxia because she's gone to 's conferences -and I'm

an Olympic skater because I watched the winter Olympics for a few times now. I

personally would find someone like that annoying but again if your child is

making progress- that's the bottom line and perhaps...just perhaps -you won't

need to see her and any other SLP at all much longer (I have a feeling as the

Black Eyed Peas say)

=====

February 13, 2010

My son was dx w/ apraxia by the EI SLP at age 23 months. Now at age 5, he prek

SLP is thinking that he may have an auditory processing disorder (as well?) He

has madde huge strides in his expressive language (actually my oldest daughter

said this morning she liked it when he didn't talk b/c now he talks all of the

time - obviously she was talked to about that, but that's a different story...).

I can understand about 85-90% of what he says, and what I can't he will find a

way to help me (for ex. - he said " det " when not understood, he went on to say

you know the place fix animals = vet). He will repeat himself an/or elaborate

on what he's trying to say. He also has some sensory issues (can not stand to

have his hair washed - it's like torture; tags on shirts bother him); blowing

bubbles/candles out are difficult; some loud sounds (fireworks) bother him.

Bonnie

February 13, 2010

Sounds a little SPD. It is my understanding that apraxia fits into the SPD

category. Most of our kiddies have some sensory issues. My son will occasionally

walk on his toes! Really they are just different labels. Some kids may have a

bit of each. It sounds as if your sons sytmes are really not that bad. You

should read the. OUT OF SYNC CHILD very good read. I would also take your child