Apraxia and Prompt therapy

So my son gets OT once a week a special instrictor 2 times a week and a speech person once a week( will be going to two soon i hope). He has been receiving all 3 since October. His recpetive speech and what he knows( body parts, objects, anmals) is all tremmously better,but ter speech is just not coming yet. He wil be 22 months on the 7th. Anyway i dont see the speech teacher bc she goes to my moms on friday but i spoke to her today. i asked her is there a reaosn for hsi delay or is it just a delay. She said she is NOT diagnosing him now, she actally wants me to get him a hearing test first,but she mentioned she has in the back of her mind it might be Apaxia. Now i have been reading up on it and the way she made it sound was like you can get some other tye of thepayy,prompt therapy and he should eventually be ok. I asked if this means like a life time of special ed and she said no. However what i am reading online it makes it seem really bad. It said in some cases they uses sign language to communicate bc they cant talk. , any words of wisdom?

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

I'm not an expert by any means, but my son was in speech therapy since 18 months old, he had a severe problem. From what I know, 22 months is awfully young to try to diagnose apraxia. I was under the impression that an accurate diagnosis would be given more at the age of 3.

I don't know your son's history, but honestly at 22 months, my DS's language was really behind, definitely not age level. Therapy was helping, but the improvements were small and slow to come. Somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2, things really blossomed and the progress came fast and furious. (He did not have apraxia, but he did have major oral-motor problems) Today, at nearly 4, outside of minor articulation issues that I still take him to private therapy for, you would never know there had been a problem.

I would definitely give it time before delving into apraxia research. And don't read that book called "The Late Talker" unless your son gets a definitive diagnosis down the line... that book is very alarmist, it scared the sh!t out of me back when he was around 2!!!

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

Thanks she did say it was just in the back of her mnd and she was NOT diagnosing him.She says typially it wont be diagnosed until 3 but she has seen it earlier and made a correct diagnosis but said have his hearing tested to rule that out.

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

my dd is rather delayed on expressive, but fine on receptive speech. we also heard "apraxia" as a possibility. but keep in mine there are 2 different types of apraxia. oral and verbal. verbal is the equivalent of saying a speech delay according to my therapist. its a term that shouldn't really be used because its too close to the term for oral apraxia. which is a very different thing. oral is the one you have to worry about, because its a problem with motor planning. the kids know what they want to say, but they have difficulty getting their muscles to move so that they can say it. its alot harder, but they do learn to speak. and it might take longer. my ST said there are some strong signs for oral aprazia, one of the big ones is they look like they are struggling when trying to say something. and nothing ever comes out the same way twice, because they can't make the msucles move the exact same way every time. but keep in mind verbal apraixa is nothing like oral apraxia. and typically verbal apraxic kids end up catching up without issue. at least this is what i was told by my ST (And i've known here for 6 years now.. she worked with my son too.)

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

Apraxia was mentioned for DS. But at 2.5 yo he is still too young for a diagnostic.

But most likely it might be.

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

My son who is 4.5 has severe apraxia (CAS). He was diagnosied last May at 3.5. He has been seeing a Prompt trained therapist privately since May in addition to getting his regular speech / OT in a specialized preschool. He has made a tremendous amount of progress, but honestly not until he started the Prompt. I was told as well at about 2.5 that he did have signs of apraxia, but that it was too early to diagnose. After an entire year in the specialized preschool with speech with no progress, I decided to get him evaluated with someone who was trained and has experience working with apraxic children. If your interested I can give you the name of the therapist we are using. Good Luck

Message edited 2/4/2010 5:52:39 PM.

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

I also go to a PROMPT Therapist and LOVE her. I mentioned Apraxia, but she said he is still too your to give that diagnosis. Plus she said he didnt really show any signs of it.

I am seeing a big difference in his speech since we have seen her.

Re: Apraxia and Prompt therapy

a SLP here...from my experience...there is a very wide range of functioning when children are apraxic. prompt can be helpful for a while but it isn't a cure-all and it shouldn't go on forever and ever. it can be very helpful for some. i have also found that many children were considered apraxic when very little and by the time they leave preschool it is clear that they have numerous phonological processes, which was the problem in the first place. be sure if the therapist is doing oral motor exercises that there is evidenced based practice in place. there is more and more research out there that non-speech oral motor exercises (like blowing, tongue movement, etc.) that don't improve intelligibility and speech sound production. there are a few out there with some research behind them.