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

[toon_town_nutter]

Does he comprehend what you're saying to him?

[daydream**believer]

hi toon..

Yes he does. He understands everything we say to him. He tries to talk. Im sure he even thinks hes talking, but it just comes out all jumbled.

He uses a lot of hand signals, which the speechy told me is great.

He uses the sound "ba" for almost everything.

[daydream**believer]

It took us a year to teach him to be able to say "bye bye dad".

He could say both seperately, but when he tried to put them together, he got confused and would end up saying things like "bye bye ba du dad mum bye..."

He makes animal sounds like meow, woof,  and brrm brmm for car,  and toot toot for train but cant even get close to saying the actual words cat, dog, car and train

[chuk_77]

---

@daydream**believer wrote:

It took us a year to teach him to be able to say "bye bye dad".

He could say both seperately, but when he tried to put them together, he got confused and would end up saying things like "bye bye ba du dad mum bye..."

He makes animal sounds like meow, woof,  and brrm brmm for car,  and toot toot for train but cant even get close to saying the actual words cat, dog, car and train

---

must be a bit scary and stressful for you daydream but Im sat here intrigued at the way it works. Its amazing that the describing words (toot, brrmm) he can associate with the item but the actual word gets lost along the way. How about teaching him some basic sign language? Would that help while you wait for speech?

[*pepe]

this sounds so frustrating.

now that you know what the issue is and how its to be treated i hope he goes ahead in leaps and bounds.

[lakeland27]

 My son didn't seem aware that he was hard to understand, it only really dawned on him when he started school, with the other kids saying 'what was that ' etc . he's very sociable and found it quite distressing at the time , fortunately he also has a thick skin.

I think that is possibly the biggest problem this causes.. frustration at not being understood. a lot of support was required at school for the first few years . getting in early is important, i must admit to being in denial about it.. the old 'he'll be right'' but it sounds like you are right on to it which can only improve things for him.

[mainecoon1]

daydream my nephew who is now 13 was diagnosed with the same thing, he had intensive speech therapy and is speaking well now, and is also doing well at school, he still has some difficulties but on the whole it is not noticeable.

I must confess I was one of the people that told my sister not to worry that he would talk when he was ready so felt a bit bad when I found out he had a problem.  Even though my sister got frustrated with the comments she realises they were said in good faith as she was sufferring from guilty mum syndrome and we were trying to make her feel better.  She did not have my nephew until she was 44 so thought it was her fault because she was a bad mum.

[daydream**believer]

Hi chuk, we wont use traditional sign language but we will use hand signals.

Hayden has already made his own signals for when he wants something to eat or drink.

pepe, we have had some very frustrating times. He tries so hard to talk and i try to guess what he wants and it doesnt always go well which gets him angry and he then screams.

lakeland, we are now getting a lot of support. Hayden goes to occasional care on a thursday morning for 2 hrs and they have now got a spot for him on friday morning as well, while their speechy is there.

The thing i had to learn was that i had to praise all types of communication from him. If i ask him to say cat and he says meow, i must praise that and say "great talking".  Kids with this can stop making sounds completely if they are corrected too much so its allo praise praise praise

[daydream**believer]

maine, i went through that as well. A big cry wondering if it was my fault as i had him later in life (i was 38).

I still wonder if that was the reason, even though all the information says they know no reason what causes this.

[daydream**believer]

my hardest obstacle at this stage is, to get the assistance we need for him, on a form i had to tick that he had a disability. That was hard to do.

But, then i was told that he is just a special child that needs a little extra help to communicate.

His "disability" is just that he has something that is delaying his development.

He will get past it. I know he will