Verbal Apraxia

[daydream**believer]

Was told last week that my son has verbal apraxia.

He is 3 in 2 weeks and i knew there was a problem, just been tracking down the right place to help us.

His vocabulary consists of only 4 words.

I kept being told....

"Ohh' he'll talk when hes ready"

"His older siblings probably do all the talking for him"

"Maybe hes just got nothing he needs to say yet"

But i knew there was a problem. Now we will be starting intensive speech therapy as soon as we can get a spot

Has anyone else had a child with verbal apraxia? Im a bit overwhelmed by it all

[daydream**believer]

for those who have never heard of it

http://www.tayloredmktg.com/dyspraxia/das.shtml

[silverfaun]

Good luck and good thought sent your way.

[azureline**]

I hope it all has amazing success. Speechies are very good at what they do.

[freakiness]

Speech therapists can help do wonders with children experiencing such difficulties.

Good luck with it when you get him started with it.

[lakeland27]

DDB one of my sons has the same condition, i remember him starting primary school unable to say his own name clearly. it was almost indecipherable .. he started college this year and although i can still hear elements of his problem , with time it has become far less pronounced .. to the point nobody seems to notice anymore. he had speech therapy in primary school for a number of years and some private assistance from me (i'm a south australian so i have a magnificent voice )  he came through very well.

[fourandsixpants]

Hi Daydream believer:)

Your son will be fine I'm sure of this.

My brother (aged 54 this year!) would not speak until after he had turned 4. I did all his comms for him til then.

Once he started speaking he wouldn't stop!

Nothing wrong with him.

He was put into hospital before he spoke for a tonsillectomy. Mum was crook with pneumonia and forgot to tell Dad to relay to nursing staff/Dr that my bro did not speak......he was marched off to the psychiatrist for a series of tests!!! and were about to do more when one of the nurses saw my bro looking out the window from his bed and was jumping up and down excitedly.....babbling and grunting(he did this !) she looked out and saw her fireman boyfriend driving a fire engine (we were located on an airforce base in UK and this was at the base hospital) The nurse scooped my bro up wrapped in warm blankets and after asking matrons permission and waving down her boyfriend, took my bro for a series of 'laps' around the outskirts of the airfield:) Afterwards they called the hosp psych so he could witness my bro talking and babbling excitedly about what he had been doing and where he had been. 

 Good luck with the speech pathologist etc. Be patient and don't stress x

....labels, labels, labels. Gotta have 'em some say *sheesh

[fourandsixpants]

his attempts at 'talking' when in the hospital were single, hard to understand words like 'RED TRUCK' and mimicking of the fireengine bell clanging 'DING! DING! DING!' etc and lots of 'whooshing' noises....and accompanied by arm flaps etc.....he's quite a normal person:)

[azureline**]

Daydreams little one is not choosing to not speak though. He has a medical condition preventing him from speaking which can be helped by speech therapy.

My second child did not speak to anyone outside our immediate family until she was 5 yo. but that was selective mutism, possibly connected to ASD. Labels are useful to get proper treatment.

[daydream**believer]

thanks everyone.

Yeh, my son is not choosing not to speak. He cant speak. He has a neurologically based speech disorder

Think of dyslexia, where the signal from the brain is getting jumbled as it gets to to written word so the child has trouble writing and reading.

Well verbal apraxia works the same way but the signal from the brain is getting jumbled as it gets to the spoken word.

We are looking at having to do speech therapy for a couple of years at least and also having him attaend a kindy with a full time speechy there