Child with Possible Apraxia of Speech

Yes, my son had / has Apraxia. I want to congratulate you on getting him services so early. It will make a difference.

It has been a very long road for us. I have had to advocate for my son since the very beginning. I went to my son's two year old doctor's appointment concerned that he was not speaking very much or clearly. He said that 'boys talk later'. I went home and spoke to my mom who encouraged me to have him evaluated. He qualified for two hours of Speech and two hours of OT a week.

Then, when he turned three, the school district took over. I had them agree to continue the treatment but I had to pay and then get reinbursed. They agreed to do this for about four months. My son was then placed with a Speech Therapist through the district. Since his therapy time went way down I searched for an affordable option to increase his time. Fortunately, we live relatively close to a college that teaches Speech Therapist. They had a program that he could enroll in. The cost was significantly less but I had to drive a lot to get there. In addition, you could only enroll for four semesters.

I have also paid for private Speech Therapists to come to our home and paid them out of pocket.

The district still serves him. He is now seven. Though he still has a speech issue, he is talking in full sentences above his grade level. We are proud of his progress yet we know we are not done.

Good luck and never give up. You will need all of your conviction to deal with the school district and insurance. (Our state, CA, was actually the best to deal with (when he was 2 1/2) so I hope Texas is generous with you).

My son had apraxia. He did receive private ST and ST through Early Intervention and the school district for a number of years. He's 7 now and is speaking very well. You can understand what he is saying. ST is not a quick fix but it does work. Make sure that you are doing your homework with your son and give it some time. He's still very young but you are doing good things for him.

My son, who is now 8, was diagnosed with apraxia of speech when he was just under 2 years old. He speaks well now, but has been in speech therapy since he was 20 months old. You need to find a speech therapist who really understands apraxia, as it is different (it's a motor planning problem). You need to stay diligent as he grows in school. Children with apraxia of speech are more likely to have other communicative motor planning problems like dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.

If you are open to alternative treatments, you should look at craniosacral therapy, OT and PT. We used that, along with the speech therapy, to make sure all parts of his brain were firing/planning 'correctly.' We did it for only 6 months, but it made a HUGE difference. In fact, his entire vocabulary came in during those 6 months. Once it was over, he only had to work on articulation.

If you have any other questions, please email.

If he showing signs of apraxia he needs further evaluation. ECI is good at somethings, and not others. If you can afford it I would recommend a developmental pediatrician and occupational therapy. Typically apraxia had a high rate of being mixed with something else. You will see the best results from priate therapy if your insurance covers it. My son has Asperger's. We use the school's therapy but in additon do outside speech, social skills and did OT (he's completed). The school district only has a limited amout of resources, and we have seen a vast improvement since adding the private therapy.
If you are willing to drive to Dallas I have the name of an excellent developmental pediatrician. He does not take insurance so you have to pay and then submit to insurance, but we found him well worth the money and hassle.

Hi A.! My youngest son has mild apraxia of speech. The best advise I can give you is to make sure that you receive speech therapy for apraxia!! There are not that many therapist that are trained. Some therapist will tell you they can treat "apraxia" but it might not be specialized for it. Most therapist and the school district will provide language and/or articulation therapy. But the apraxia will not be addressed - (The motor planning and sequencing) My oldest son was a late talker and needed articulation therapy. He is caught up now. At that time we met a little boy you had severe apraxia and not 3 years later is is completely caught up due to the correct therapy. We are now seeing his therapist. So far for 2 weeks and I can already tell a difference in my youngest. Not only in the approach but I'm active in the therapy. I sit in and then do sessions at home with him (you need 4-5 sessions a week with apraxia; I do 2 with the therapist and the rest at home) I can totally see how the approach is different! I've been through several therapist and the school district (which was very very slow going) and can see how targeted apraxia therapy helps! A good book to read is "The Late Talker". It's all about Apraxia. Please feel free to email me directly if you like to talk about it. I know how it can feel! Good Luck!

My grandson has apraxia of speech. His pediatrician also said not to worry that he was just slow getting started. When he was 2 1/2 his pediatrician gave his mother phone numbers so that she could have him evaluated. She decided to have him evaluated thru the school district since his insurance didn't cover specialist in this field. He's received ST, OT, thru the school district ever since. When his Dad changed to Kaiser Permanente Insurance, he had a few sessions with a specialist which did not seem to be related to his lack of speech or emotional control. He did well during the short time in their structured environment. They focused on gaining his co-operation in doing activities.

He's now 7 and entering the 2nd grade in a special education class. This past year he was mainstreamed in P.E. and art and continued in the therapies. Unfortunately,. he only gets ST 2 hours/week and he's not benefited as much as we'd hoped because of his anger issues.

He's still not able to consistently talk so that we can understand him. I wonder if he'd be further along if he'd received speech therapy earlier and more often, especially when I hear of successful results for other children.

He also has behavior difficulties and I think that he's somewhere on the autism spectrum disorder line. His mother has asked about that and the Early Intervention people have said it's possible. They have now referred him to a pediatric developmental specialist. Until this. referral I didn't know there was such a specialist. His regular pediatrician had to see him to do the referral and he diagnosed him with ADHD and said that my grandson has several issues which need treatment.

I think he should have seen a pediatric developmental specialist from the beginning. I'm very glad to read about your getting your child early intervention along with continued and more often speech therapy.

You do not mention if there are behavioral issues as well. Around 2, I noticed that my grandson ran into walls and objects, seemingly on purpose and needed firm touch often, and was unable to sit quietly for any length of time at all. We stopped eating out, even for special occasions because he was all over the place and could not be controlled in the new and chaotic environment.

He has always ran full speed, head on, to greet me with a hug even tho I've worked with him trying to get him to stop. He doesn't recognize social cues in spite of focusing on teaching them to him. He is beginning to respond to directions given at the moment that action is needed.

He seems to be emotionally on one end or the other much of the time. He's bursting with enthusiastic energy or very angry. He probably does spend about half of his time in the middle but the two extremes are so obvious. He's become much more calm at home and with me but he's become more aggressive at school.

I've worked a lot with children who had emotional issues and he's the first one I remember seeing actually clench his fists at his side and contort his face in an effort to not hit. He still has difficulty in being able to stop himself from hitting and kicking unless he leaves the situation. His classroom has a time out chair but what he needs is vigorous action. His emotions are so intense!

He has noticeable difficulty changing transitioning from one activity to another. For example, he has difficulty leaving his toys and going to the dinner table even tho they have a dinner routine and he's warned ahead of time. He is now able to stay at the table for 10-15 minutes but it's taken a lot of effort to teach him how to do that.

Fortunately my grandson is warm and loveable much of the time until something happens and he goes on a terror. I'm praying that the pediatric developmental specialist will be able to figure out what is going on and we can find ways to help him.

Early on, one of his therapists recommended learning sign language. I've worked on learning it but discovered that no one has taught him sign language. Just today I found flash cards with pictures and I'm going to work with him so that both of us can learn it. I suspect that at least some of his anger is related to his inability to communicate with words.

I don't know how much of his behavior is related to the apraxia of speech and how much to other diagnosis not yet made. I've done a lot of reading and often feel confused. This is a new field and a lot of what I read seems to be supposition not yet proven. There are several interrelated conditions.

And my big frustration is it is expensive to have private treatment and the school district has limited funding even tho a federal law mandates diagnosis and treatment. I've found information on the Internet and in a few books. Having speech apraxia, developmental and educational issues is overwhelming.

You are doing a great job getting the help your child needs. Since you mentioned only speech difficulties I'm not sure that what I've written will be helpful for you. If apraxia of speech is your child's only problem,I would be encouraged after reading Laurie D and Chantal A's answers. You have been able to get therapy from both school district and private sources. I think your child has a very good chance of learning to talk by the time he's in school.