Verbal Apraxia

[Pink Fairy]

The speech therapist told me today that she thinks my 2yo son's speech delay stems from verbal apraxia. I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience and/or advice to share with this worried mama. :crying:

[MyLittleWonders]

My middle son was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech when he was 27 months. He did both private speech therapy through our insurance and also in-home therapy through the Regional Center. When he turned three, he transitioned to speech (only - not preschool) through our local school district. He made good improvement (he went from almost completely non-verbal to being able to communicate only about 1 year behind developmentally), but got stuck with blending two consonants (for instance, "stop" was /s/, /t/, "op"). When he was 3 1/2, we went gluten free as a family (we were targeting undiagnosed sensory issues in him and hoping that maybe the speech would improve too). A month after going GF, his speech was amazing. He could blend letters; there were no gaps in his speech (other words had big gaps too - for instance "shoe" is /sh/ /oo/). He finished that next school year with speech and graduated on-par with his peers. He is now 6 and does very well. He has a couple "bad habits" that we still work on, but none of them are still related to the Apraxia.

[Pink Fairy]

Thank you for sharing. I just started researching, and I've found some interesting theories about how diet and supplements can impact speech development. I'm hoping to get an action plan of sorts together in the next week or so.

[4kiddies]

My son who is almost 7 has verbal apraxia. He say a speech therapist at 3 and was determined to have the articulation of a 18 month old. :glare:

 

We have been taking him to a wonderful speech pathologist who works with him and he has made great strides. He finally is understood by most people all the time. It has been tough at times but we are getting there! I only wish I had started him on private speech earlier. I expect to have speech therapy for him for at least another 2 years. His speech therapists keeps telling me we will get there, it just might take some time!

 

 

Hang in there!

[sadiegirl]

My son was diagnosed with Apraxia when he was small. Our parents-as-teacher advisor suggested I had him tested because he was not talking in a language that we could understand! It was babble mainly! He also had issues with texture of foods, cuffs and tags on shirts, going down slides and swinging, ball pits etc.

So, we tested him, found an amazing speech therapist and also had some occupational therapy as well(they put him in swimming pool filled with beans, or sand--different textures. They also put him on a big swinging board. All this before he would go into speech.

Fast forward-he was talking non-stop, fantastic vocabulary and he is now a normal 14 1/2 kid!

Find a good speech therapist...you'll never regret it! Oh, and we never did do anything with his diet.

[Sandra in FL]

(dada, mama, etc) at age 2-3. A lot of it had to do with his severe allergies (which I found out about at age 9 months) so I guess he wasn't hearing anything up until then when I cleaned up his diet.

 

I took him in for evaluation at about 15 months old and got him on speech therapy right away. It was paid for by the fed govt until age 3 but I continued with the same therapist privately (out of my own pocket). I was blessed by meeting this (Christian) therapist. She would even pray over him.

 

I had given up hope of him speaking but she was patient (and very knowledgeable). We'd been through a few young, inexperienced ones. I played "a lot" of books on tape (the Ramona series is done very well) everyday. He didn't speak until after age 3 and now his accent sounds British (too much Narnia and Harry Potter). His friends at church always ask him why he speaks like that. He's turned out to be the most social/talkative of my children. He is one a casien-free, gluten-free diet.

 

My older son (aspie) was not diagnosed until after age 3. At age 11, even after years of speech therapy, his speech is not as good as the Apraxia kid. He spoke but even I could not understand him. He basically had to relearn almost all his sounds so he sounds "mechanical." It could be the Aspergers though.

 

Please get speech therapy as soon as possible. Try to get an older, experienced one. Play a lot of books on tape (at whatever level he's at).

 

HTH,

Sandra