Mom of a child with severe Childhood Apraxia

Amy - posted on 04/05/2012

Hi Jennifer, I'm so glad I came across your post. I too have a son with severe apraxia. I often wonder if he'll ever talk. I'm very close to my friends and neighbors but none of them have ever heard of Apraxia or can relate to our struggles. I've been hoping to find another parent who is going through the same experience with this disorder that my family is.

Danielle - posted on 01/26/2012

I have 2 children with speech disorders - 9 yr old dd & 7.5 yr old ds. Both have been in speech therapy since 2007. My dd spoke fairly clearly until just before she turned 3, when we all realized we suddenly couldn't understand anything she said. Then we gave her a year to see if it would self-correct before we saught help. My ds was just a very slow starter, which I blamed partially on having 2 older sisters who would speak for him.



Right around when my dd turned 5 her speech therapist mentioned apraxia, and we started going through the process of finding a developmental pediatrian, but it took so long to find a dr that would take her & the waiting list was then 18 mos. Before we even got an appt she was in Kindergarten with new speech therapists (at school & private) and they didn't think she had apraxia & she had made huge improvements, so we didn't continue with getting an evaluation.



They both still have a lot of speech errors, but I no longer have to 'translate' for them constantly. My dd improved a lot when she started to read. My ds, on the other hand, has had difficulty learning to read because of his speech problems. Last year he had a GREAT therapist at school & between the huge leap his speech took & a reading tutor his reading level jumped.



Neither one of them gets enough speech therapy from school, so I take them to an outside therapist (office that has several STs & also has PT & OT) that is covered under our health insurance. I just need to pay the $25 copay (each) every visit. It adds up. I've spent so much money on speech therapy, with no end in sight. My ds also has OCD and when something sets him off, he can't speak. It makes it harder sometimes to figure out what set him off.