First of all welcome to my blog. I'm a father of three and recently been told my twin sons (3 1/2 years old) have Apraxia of Speech and problems with the fine/gross motor skills. My wife and I had been having a lot of trouble understanding our boys for what we considered a long time. We have never missed a wellness visit w/ our pedatrician and P&A have always been on a good developmental pace. The pedatrician would ask us for example; if they were saying 10 words or more. We would answer yes. But they never would ask how many words does your children say that are unintelligible. So due to the fact the twins were our first children we went on to think they were on pace and would soon learn to pronounce all the words properly as they grew older. We had absolutely no other experience with children so we had nothing to compare their progress to. Therefore we put our trust in our pedatrician but this dad always had his gut feeling something was wrong.
My wife and I finally just called our local school and asked them to evaluate our sons speech. They did so and found them to have what they describe as a "superior language skills" and "severley impaired speech." In general, they know what the heck is being said to them they just can't say things they want to.A great site to learn more about Apraxia is: www.apraxia-kids.org
The speech therapist suggested we have an intensive speech therapy program. It was recommended that they attend class (speech therapy) for five days a week for half a day. During those days they would also receive a group session and individual session of occupational therapy.Peter and Alex couldn't be happier. They want to go to school so badly. It makes them feel like "big boys" and they get to ride the school bus.
2 comments:
Hi! Thanks for checking out my site, and I'm glad I came to look at yours... I am an American Sign Language major and I think I briefly remember going over Apraxia, but I think we just discussed it quickly. Do children with Apraxia typically learn to pronounce words, or do they often learn to rely on sign language? I also want to say that I think it's absolutely wonderful that you and your wife are so supportive of your sons, and that they are excited to go to school. Working with Deaf children, I often meet very neglective parents, mostly frustrated because they cannot communicate with their own kids. And the younger the kids are, the more often I meet frustrated parents. I wish you all the best for you and your family and look forward to reading more of your posts =)
kay_ski
good luck to you and your family. education is the key to the world.
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