Re: Re: I have a child with Speech apraxia

March 9, 2010

Hi, thanks for the welcome. My son is 2 years and 9 months and I started to

notice at about a year old that he was not starting to repeat words. I let it go

till about a year and a half mostly cause everyone told me I was acting like a

lunatic. They said he is an only child, a boy, etc. I heard every excuse in the

book. I tried play dates and he didn't even try. I contacted EI and they

evaluated him and said that he needed Special Instruction therapy cause his play

skills weren't up to par. I attempted to fight their findings, but was so

disgusted I let it go. When the SI therapist came she of course said he needed

specch therapy as well....DUH! So he was re-evaluated and started speech soon

after. Mind you-- time wasted. Anyway, he received SI 2 x 30 and speech 3 x30.

He was doing great with his play skills and learning a lot, but he STILL wasn't

talking. They eventually upped the speech to 5 x 30 and I put him in daycare. A

month into daycare at 2

years and 4 months he finally started getting the words out. Mind you, he did

get the words out little by little, but it was with great difficulty and a lot

were hard to understand. His speech therapist (who is lovely mind you) did a

little research and told me that perhaps his difficulties were due to Speech

Apraxia. He was evaluated and sure enough that was his diagnosis. Last month he

started to put two words together and use 2 syllable words, but he is still not

where he is supposed to be in terms of speech. I am just proud that he is saying

anything, but with each of his famous evaluations my heart aches for more

progress on his part. I get scared and nervous about his future. Right now I am

looking forward to getting him started with CPSE. They just finished his

evaluations and the meeting will be soon. I am looking for a speech therapist

that works with CPSE and is PROMPT certified. If anyone knows of any in

Manhattan I would greatly appreciate

it. Thanks for listening.

Also, I wanted more information on fish oil. Which should I buy? Omega 3, 6, or

9??? Where do I buy it? I saw one that I was going to buy on Amazon. It's Li'l

Critters Gummy Omega 3. here is the link. Is this good enough to help my son?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0030DKQAI/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encod\

ing=UTF8 & m=AS3HOSV4DF0UG & v=glance

Thanks again!

-a

________________________________

From: kiddietalk <kiddietalk@...>

Sent: Mon, March 8, 2010 9:29:13 PM

Subject: [ ] Re: I have a child with Speech apraxia

Hi a and welcome! Please let us know a bit more about your child -how he is

communicating now, if he's showing any frustrations, what type of therapy he is

currently receiving, if you are currently working with your town's school on an

IEP (if in the US) so we can better help you. Or please feel free to ask

specific questions. Also don't be overwhelmed by the amount of information we

share here -we all can go back to basics to help you with your child's new

diagnosis!

PS here is some newly diagnosed as apraxia info from our apraxia.org page

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=115029735601 & topic=7329

There is much hope!

=====

March 9, 2010

He has had 2 speech evals, 1 special instruction eval, 1 neurological eval, 1

developmental pediatric eval (who diagnosed the Apraxia), hearing test, 2 psych

evals, 1 PT, and 1 OT. I tried to get him a Neurodevelopmental eval, but it is

super expensive and we can't afford it cause our insurance only reimburses and

not even all of it.

Ultimately Speech and apparently PT were the main concerns for CPSE. Special

Instruction and Speech for EI.

Thanks for the fish oil info.

________________________________

From: kiddietalk <kiddietalk@...>

Sent: Tue, March 9, 2010 11:08:17 AM

Subject: [ ] Re: I have a child with Speech apraxia

a have you taken your son for a neurodevelopmental medical exam to confirm

or rule out any soft signs? Or is that who confirmed the apraxia? If apraxia

is suspected a neurodevelopmental medical exam is highly recommended. Here's

some info from our brand new and almost finished website (thank you

!)

http://www.cherabfo undation. org/category/ disorders/ signs-and- symptoms

Don't be afraid of finding out there is something going on outside of speech

such as low tone, sensory or motor planning issues in other areas of the body as

now is the best time to address them -and in most cases in our group they are

mild. In fact most of us as parents and even most pediatricians will look at

our kids and say " just a late talker " at 2...but apraxia in itself doesn't

affect cognitive ability -so the child knows what is expected of him and pushes

himself to keep up...but as they get older more is expected of them and that's

when they can start to break down.

A good example is when a child is in 1st grade (and depending upon what age you

start kindergarten could be 6 or 7 years old) they are expected to sit upright

in a chair for a longer period of time...if they have even mild low tone in the

truncal area that makes it harder for them so they'll lean on the desk. But in

addition to academic reasons -if there is weakness in the truncal area that can

affect breath control which is the basis of speech.

The therapies an OT (occupational therapist) does to strengthen low tone in the

truncal area are SUPER fun for preschool kids. I remember for example my son

being on his belly on a carpeted skate board and he had to knock over a " brick

wall " looked like a brick wall but just a bunch of cardboard boxes. So Tanner

needed to keep his head and legs up and use his arms to push while on his belly

which was hard for him -but he was having so much fun he wanted to keep doing

it.

Point is that now is the time for this type of therapy -it's not taking away

from any academic time -and again can be super fun for your child! Have you

read The Late Talker book? I co authored that with a neuroMD who is in NYC in

the Tribeca area. There are quite a few members from the NE so perhaps they'll

have suggestions at to PROMPT therapists as well. (Barbara CCC SLP???)

Keep in mind you want a therapist who can pull from outside the box as well to

work with your child on what his needs are.

And as far as that fish oil vitamin -no not at all the right formula, way way

too low in EPA 10 mg, and DHA 32 mg -no GLA Here's a page on fish oil 101

http://www.facebook .com/topic. php?uid=11502973 5601 & topic= 7401 again from our

apraxia.org page It's kind of a myth that we as parents think there is such a

thing as a children's fish oil. The dosage of EFA approved for infant formula

is about the same dosage that is in one regular sized capsule of ProEFA (which

is one of the brands we use with success in this group)

Let me know if you had the neuro exam yet...I'm suspecting that you didn't only

because you don't mention anything other than speech and play skills and it's

pretty rare for a child to present today with pure verbal apraxia. Again don't

get upset if it's more than just speech going on -the prognosis in this group is

quite high for mainstream K-12 and life -there is so much hope a!

=====

March 9, 2010

my son also didn't say " mommy " until he was 4. y.o. and today @ 8 y.o., we are

memorizing lines for a musical! He's not 100% resolved..but he can be easily

understood today. It does take time, patience & lots of support by parents,

family & friends. This site is invaluable as well.

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of Dianne

Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 11:18 AM

Subject: [ ] Re: I have a child with Speech apraxia

a - Hang in there! My son couldn't even say " mommy " until he was 4, and now

we get full sentences. He's still difficult for most people to understand, but

we've come a long way, and quickly! The surges do come!

Regarding the fish oils - have you read 's book, " The Late Talker " yet? Not

sure if she will toot her own horn, so I just wanted to point out that it's a

great source of information on the fish oils - the whys and hows of it all, etc.

- it's the first book I read when our son was diagnosed. That said, the quick

answer is that it seems that a combo of omegas 3, 6, & 9 in a certain ratio seem

to work best. I don't have experience with any other brands, so I can't help

with the one you asked about or others, but we use Nordic Naturals Pro-EFA and

Pro-EPA. We buy the capsules, pierce them, and squeeze the oil in his juice. He

takes 4 Pro-EFAs and 2 Pro-EPA each day, and we buy them from The Cherub

Foundation.

Hope that helps.

Dianne

>

> Hi, thanks for the welcome. My son is 2 years and 9 months and I started to