Childhood Apraxia Also Known As...

So far I share shared a bit on childhood Apraxia. Here's a list of other names, it is known by.

• Developmental Dyspraxia
• Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia
• Developmental Aphasia
• Developmental Apraxia of Speech
• Dyspraxic Dysarthria
• Verbal Apraxia
• Oral Verbal Apraxia
• Development Verbal Apraxia
• Childhood Aphasia
• Executive Aphasia
• Congenital Articulatory Aphasia
• Dilapidated Speech
• Articulatory Apraxia
• Articulatory Dyspraxia
• Phonetic Disintegration
• Afferent Motor Aphasia
• Efferent Motor Aphasia
• Little Broca's Aphasia
• Ataxic Aphasia
• Sensorimotor Impairment
• Minimal Brain Dysfunction/ Disorder
• Pure Motor Aphasia
• Speech Sound Muteness

Book: Speaking of Apraxia by Leslie A. Lindsay, R.N., B.S.N.

Childhood Apraxia

It is difficult to narrow down the specifics of Apraxia. You may be unsure as to whether or not your child has it. I did a lot of observation on Ivan, in the early stages, to help me to help him. These observations helped me a lot when we went to professionals for help.

Some books tell us that childhood apraxia are often inherited from the family. But yet others say, that it could be a unique case for any particular child. Nothing is carved in stone, to each its own. Here are a few pointers based on the age of a child, that I think will be helpful to you.

Warning Signs in Infancy (Birth to Age 1)

• There is decreased cooing or babbling. Others comment on what a "quiet baby" you have.
• May have feeding difficulties.
• Your baby's first words appear late (after 14 months) or not at all.
• If first words do appear, they are often "easy," sounds (phonemes) replaced with even easier ones. For example, "hi" might sound like "I," but is used in a greeting context.

Warning Signs in Early Childhood (Age 1 to 3)

• Understands most of what is said, but cannot verbalize well. Large gap between receptive and expressive language.
• Cannot correctly use sounds.
• Difficulty imitating words and phrases
• Messy and distracting eating. Requires prompts to take a bite, chew, swallow, and drink; may overstuff or "pocket" food in the cheeks.
• Hyper-or hyposensitivty to oral activities such as eating different textures of foods or brushing teeth; difficulty identifying an object in the mouth through touch.
• Prosody (melody) of speech is affected. Also may only be able to repeat a word/sound/phrase in the context of a practical routine; may "lose" words, and may have inability to repeat words when asked.
• May have developed elaborate nonverbal or gestural communication.
• Struggles with speech; "searching" (groping) for the right word.
• Leaves sounds out of words (e.g., "cookie" becomes "coo-ie").
• The longer the phrase attempted, the less understandable the child becomes.

Warning Signs at Any Age

Neurological problems (problems that affect cognition, body mechanics, or the sensory system) may occur with a variety of childhood conditions. Those that may accompany CAS include:

• The child often gestures and grunts in lieu of oral communication.
• Gross motor skills (running, jumping, climbing) may also be slow in developing.
• The child appears clumsy or uncoordinated , has poor body awareness (proprioception), or difficulty with fine motor skills (holding a pencil, using scissors)
• IQ testing shows high performance IQ (doing tasks) and low verbal IQ (taking tasks).
• Poor sequencing (the child has difficulties putting a series of movements in order-e.g., figuring out how to get on an unfamiliar piece of playground equipment, or sequencing events to relate to others).
• The child has poor auditory processing (listening and reacting appropriately) and others must repeat themselves often.
• Greater difficulties in learning to read, spell, and write.
• Difficulty with a variety of components of speech (pitch, quality, rate, etc).
• Correctly saying "difficult" words is well...difficult (e.g., "butterfly," "rocking chair," "exercise"). 
• The child can make the sound(s) of many letters when the letter is alone, but when combined in a sentence, will not be able to say it.
• Limited (correct) use of vowels and consonants
• May have developed elaborate nonverbal and gestural communication.
• Family history of delayed language development, as well as family propensity to have other learning problems.

Book: Speaking of Apraxia by Leslie A. Lindsay, R.N., B.S.N.

I really hope that the information we share with you, are useful to you and your family.

Speech Langauge Disorder- Apraxia

When we got wind of Ivan's challenges, I became frantically, looking for answers. Or rather, would I honestly, admit that I was looking for a cure. I just could not wrap my head around the idea that he had something we could not fix. The normalcy as we knew it in our lives, had been wrecked forever.

I tried to establish a routine for Ivan, and soon it became a night ritual for me. Peter had started to take overseas job projects, leaving me and the two boys alone. So, I would settle the boys both in the same room. First we would have Oreos and Milk, then we would go to bed, followed by soft instrumental music playing in the background. I say a night time prayer and tuck the boys in. El had always been rather independent and didn't like the mushy good nights. But Ivan would want me to sit by his side. I would sit in and watch him drift off to sleep. Once they were down for the night, my routine continues, as I broke down in tears and poured out my pain and anger. After a good cry, I would take a deep breathe and go over to my room and start reading and researching. The routine grew on me, and I would say that I found it healthy to let it out on a regular basis. One night, I stumbled on this article on Apraxia. I saw many symptoms that I related with, I figured that Ivan had this condition.

I came to know that autism was a landlord that had many other co-occupants too. And one of them in Ivan's case was Apraxia. Here are some info, that could help you know what it is.

"Apraxia - a neurological disorder that occurs when a child is unable to execute speech movements- the specific sequence of movements that results in proper speech- because of problems with coordination and motor planning. Apraxia does not involve muscle weakness. The child's brain is unable to plan and order motor activities so that the mouth can form the correct shapes to form words. The apraxic child knows what he wants to say, but his mouth isn't getting the correct messages to be physically able to say the desired words or sentences."

Within apraxia itself, there are two kinds, oral apraxia and verbal apraxia.

"Oral apraxia affects the child's ability to move his or her mouth muscles for intent other than speech, e.g., coughing or blowing out birthday candles."

"Verbal apraxia is identified when the child's ability to sequence speech sounds is impaired, again, not resulting from muscle weakness."

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Book: Alphabet Kids: From ADD to Zellweger Syndrome by Robbie Woliver  

Childhood Apraxia And It's Myths

There are many myths and old wife's tales when it comes to bringing up children. I am  pretty sure that you must have heard your fair share of tales too. It just gets a little harder when you are challenged with a child having special needs.

Here are some of their wisdom, that they may wish to share with you:

• Einstein was a late-taker.
• Some very bright children won't talk because they are bored with "baby talk".
• He'll talk when he has it all perfected in his mind.
• He just doesn't have anything to say.
• You (or big sister) do all of the talking for him.
• He has all of his needs met and doesn't "need" to communicate.
• He'll talk when something really interests him, or he really wants something.

So do you think that your chis is a"Late-Taker?"

According to Becca Jarzynski, a pediatric speech-language pathologist and blogger of Child Talk (www.talkingkids.org), "If a child reaches 24 months and isn't yet using 50 words and/or isn't yet putting two words together into short phrases (e.g., "more juice," "bye mama"), we typically recommend that (parents) talk to their pediatrician about an evaluation by a speech-language pathologist."

• What does the child understand?
• Can he follow a wide variety of directions?
• Find objects when Mom and Dad ask him to do so?
• Point to pictures in a book?
• Show off some body parts when they are named?
• Follow silly directions like "put a cup on your head?"

• How he is communicating with gestures and facial expressions? 
• Is he nodding and shaking his head no?
• Pointing at things that he wants or that interest him?
• Waving "hi" and "goodbye?"
• Clapping with delight? 

• How he is using the words he does have? 
• Is he using them appropriately?
• Does he have inflection in the right places?
• Can he articulate well?

• What kinds of sounds is he using?
• Does he uses his voice to get attention?
• Does he vocalize often throughout the day?
• Did he babble often as a baby?
• Does he use his voice in a way that sounds like he having a conversation, even if there are no real words involved in that conversation? (At 24 months, for example, a child should be using a variety of sounds such as p, b, m, n, t, d, h, and w- and using them in a variety of words.)

• How is he playing?
• Does he use pretend play in some very simple ways?
• For example, does he give a bottle to a baby, or feed a stuffed bear with a spoon? 
• Is he able to play simple rolling or fetching ball games with others, and starting to imitate housework?

• How does he imitate actions? 
• Will he clap when an adult does?
• Does he imitate stacking blocks?
• Will he imitate you if you do something silly and unexpected, like place a block on top of your head? 

•  How is he hearing?
• Any concerns with hearing should be evaluated to rule out a hearing loss. 
• Some kids can hear some sounds but not others.

What's a Parent to do?

If you are faced by ignorant loved-ones, or insensitive people, here are a few ways to go around it graciously, so you spare misunderstandings:

• He's takes a while to warm up
• Not all our kids develop the same, right?
• I am grateful, that he is quiet and manageable, at this age.
• He's quiet, just like his dad, men of a few words.
• Gosh, really, you think I should be concerned? What do you recommend?

I am sure you can find your own way of brushing them aside. Try not to offend them if you possibility can, you will need a good support system as your child grows and you may need to depend on them. Their ignorance is what's making them misunderstand. If you have the patience, try to fill them in, on what's going on in your child's life. Having more loved ones, is only going to be beneficial to your child.

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Book: Speaking of Apraxia by Leslie A. Lindsay, R.N., B.S.N.