Anyone dealing with Apraxia or other language disorders?
I'm starting to think that my son might have Apraxia of Speech. He will be 2 in July and he's pretty much non-verbal in every practical sense of the term. He had 2 bouts of spontaneous speech. One 6 months ago where he said "more bubble" clearly, and a couple of weeks ago where he said "my phone" clearly. Both were prompted by a strong emotional response and never said again. Other than that, he doesn't speak, yet it seems as though he is trying to say words. He will hold up a shoe and say "ssss" and a bunch of other jumbled sounds come out with it. Or he will use his communication app to ask for juice and say "jjjjzzzjjjjzzzjjjjzzz". He babbles, and I think that some of the babbling is him attempting to say words, but it's extremely difficult to tell. He's still mouthing objects constantly, he's always had issues with over stuffing his mouth and swallowing food whole, and he insists on drinking tons and tons of almond milk (dairy allergy). I think he just likes sucking on the cup, like it's a bottle. His OT mentioned the possibility of Apraxia months ago, but it isn't really her place to do anything about it. I asked his developmental evaluation team if he had it at 19 months and they told me that it was too soon to know. Is it too soon to know? They also told me that he was too young for an autism diagnosis, which I know is not true, so I don't trust what they have to say.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Does anyone know how to go about being assessed for Apraxia or other language disorders?
What can be done if he does have it?
Thank you!
My oldest had severe phonological disorder at that age. He was born tongue tied (overly connected frenulum), and his worthless pediatrician refused to allow it to be cut "We don't cut them anymore until after it causes speech problems." Which I now know is total and complete BS.
Anyway, we thought he couldn't talk except about 5 words (about 4 of those consisted of some inflection of "Da") Until he was about 27 months old and he was so very frustrated because no one was ever listening to him. It all sounded like jargoning or babble. Then one day he was trying to tell us something, I still have no idea what, but he kept repeating the same string of syllables over and over and over while holding one of his toys and he was clearly trying to tell us something, so we realized he was talking, just not understandably. When he started speech, his receptive language skills were a bit above average, his expressive was delayed and his use of speech sounds was severely delayed. He didn't hit more than 75% understandable to us at home until he was almost 5. We had to catch him saying his version of a word in association with the object or in repeat of someone else to know what he was saying. He was usually very consistent in the way he said a word. It just frequently had no resemblance to English. He used to replace all of the consonant use "Y's" with "K's", this was due to the severity of the tongue tie. He couldn't move the tip of his tongue above the top of his bottom teeth. The only word I remember now is "ga-ul" which meant "apple"
He also drooled incessantly, overstuffed his mouth, and acted like he had no sensation at all associated with food being all over his face, while he got hysterical if anything slimy/sticky touched his hands. Since he couldn't use silverware even a little bit until he was four, and not well until he was six, and would only eat pasta with sauce or other very soft foods until he was close to four, this made meal times very interesting when he was feeding himself! He's gotten over the hand over sensitivity now, but we still have to monitor how much food he's cramming into his mouth and still have to check him for having food all over his face (and I mean we literally find it on his ears and forehead sometimes!) after a meal, and he's 13 now.
An OT, even a developmental pediatrician isn't qualified to diagnose apraxia or the specifics of other speech disorders. He needs to be seen by a Speech Language Pathologist, preferably one that is at least at the Master's degree level. They need to see him about it as soon as possible. Telling you they can't diagnose speech problems in a 19 month old or a 2 year old is wasting a very narrow, very important language development window. Especially for a child suspected of apraxia, that window before age three is incredibly important to get therapy started. They work with them to improve motor function in their mouth. To help them with everything from specific speech sounds to swallowing and chewing. The best description I ever heard of apraxia of speech is that it is like cerebral palsy that affects the muscles in the mouth, and the treatment is sort of like PT for the mouth. I've also read that people with apraxia will frequently never speak exactly like an average person, but the earlier the intervention, the better the chances of them being understandable through spoken language. And of course, there is always the chance that it is something less severe like my son's turned out to be, that could be overcome with the proper early speech therapy.
Good luck.
Anyway, we thought he couldn't talk except about 5 words (about 4 of those consisted of some inflection of "Da") Until he was about 27 months old and he was so very frustrated because no one was ever listening to him. It all sounded like jargoning or babble. Then one day he was trying to tell us something, I still have no idea what, but he kept repeating the same string of syllables over and over and over while holding one of his toys and he was clearly trying to tell us something, so we realized he was talking, just not understandably. When he started speech, his receptive language skills were a bit above average, his expressive was delayed and his use of speech sounds was severely delayed. He didn't hit more than 75% understandable to us at home until he was almost 5. We had to catch him saying his version of a word in association with the object or in repeat of someone else to know what he was saying. He was usually very consistent in the way he said a word. It just frequently had no resemblance to English. He used to replace all of the consonant use "Y's" with "K's", this was due to the severity of the tongue tie. He couldn't move the tip of his tongue above the top of his bottom teeth. The only word I remember now is "ga-ul" which meant "apple"
He also drooled incessantly, overstuffed his mouth, and acted like he had no sensation at all associated with food being all over his face, while he got hysterical if anything slimy/sticky touched his hands. Since he couldn't use silverware even a little bit until he was four, and not well until he was six, and would only eat pasta with sauce or other very soft foods until he was close to four, this made meal times very interesting when he was feeding himself! He's gotten over the hand over sensitivity now, but we still have to monitor how much food he's cramming into his mouth and still have to check him for having food all over his face (and I mean we literally find it on his ears and forehead sometimes!) after a meal, and he's 13 now.
An OT, even a developmental pediatrician isn't qualified to diagnose apraxia or the specifics of other speech disorders. He needs to be seen by a Speech Language Pathologist, preferably one that is at least at the Master's degree level. They need to see him about it as soon as possible. Telling you they can't diagnose speech problems in a 19 month old or a 2 year old is wasting a very narrow, very important language development window. Especially for a child suspected of apraxia, that window before age three is incredibly important to get therapy started. They work with them to improve motor function in their mouth. To help them with everything from specific speech sounds to swallowing and chewing. The best description I ever heard of apraxia of speech is that it is like cerebral palsy that affects the muscles in the mouth, and the treatment is sort of like PT for the mouth. I've also read that people with apraxia will frequently never speak exactly like an average person, but the earlier the intervention, the better the chances of them being understandable through spoken language. And of course, there is always the chance that it is something less severe like my son's turned out to be, that could be overcome with the proper early speech therapy.
Good luck.
Thank you so much for the information. I wasn't aware that he would need to see a Speech Language Pathologist, although it does make sense. I'll call early intervention and see if they can refer me to someone ASAP. Over the weekend my son started *trying* to say a couple of new words, and it's very obvious that he's trying, but they sound awful. Not just normal toddler awful, but rather, barely distinguishable awful. Thanks again for the help.
