Speech therapist with a horrid accent

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Apraxia is a disorder in motor planning, usually in the absence of a physical/neurological disorder of the speech mechanisms. Dysphagia is a disorder of the speech mechanisms themselves.

Apraxia requires more gentleness in physical manipulation. And much repetition, so the resulting motor planning will "register," resulting in muscle memory.


Dyspraxia is the same as apraxia.

Isn't dysphagia a feeding disorder characterized by difficulty or inability to swallow food ? I didn't realize that it had anything to do with speech or speech mechanisms !

Sorry.....I meant dysarthria.

Ah, I suspected so. Talk Tools sells jaw stabilizing blocks to treat kids with dysarthria, and claims that this is a neuro-muscular disorder, whereas apraxia is caused by lesions in the Broca's area. Strangely enough, my son's MRI showed a normal brain sans lesions. The scans were clear as a bell, despite his diagnosis of "global developmental apraxia".

These things make me lose any remaining vestiges of hope that I will hear his voice this lifetime. I blamed the autism for his inability to talk for a long time, but it turns out that his autism is actually the least of my worries. Given all this, I don't even know if speech therapy will help him, even if I became an SLPA myself and worked with him 20 hours a week on sound production.

Life is not fair.

Is he doing well with AACs such as PECs?

I understand your concern. I would feel frustrated, too.

He still could emerge with good cognition.

I will pm you. Don't want to hijack this thread to make it about my son.