20 mth old dribbling, difficulty eating and no talking - verbal dyspraxia?

[VickyHew]

Our DS who is 20 months seems to understand what's going on but struggles to say anything clearly (everything he says blurs into a drawling "aaaaaaa" with the odd consonant here and there). He does a few animal noises but struggles to do them on request. He also dribbles constantly and has done so for about 14 months. He avoids chewing or swallowing biggish lumps (like pieces of sausage, bread, etc) so he is a poor eater (quickly loses interest). A doctor recently said that he might have verbal dyspraxia... which has got us in a panic! Anyone got similar experiences or advice on this?

[Jimjams]

sounds more like oral dyapraxia than verbal tbh. It's a bit too earely to assess for verbal dyspraxia and the fact that he is sayimg some consonants is good (one of the signs of verbal dypraxia is no consonants) There are a lot of exercise that can be done to help oral dyspraxia. did your GP give you any? have you been referred to a SALT? It might be worth ringing SALT to ask if they can send you some exercise sheets (its things like putting chocolate spread on the top lip so they have t lick it off).

Also have a look at \linnk{http://www.apraxia-kids.org/\apraxiakids} (apraxia is american for verbal dyspraxia) and nancy kaufman's website

[Jimjams]

try again apraxiakids

[Jimjams]

should just say that oral and verbal dyspraxia can go together but I doubt you'd get a verbal dyspraxia diagnosis yet in the UK- they tend t leave it nearer to 3.

[VickyHew]

Thanks so much for your reply. I was hoping you would respond. I've seen some of your replies on other threads and you seem to know a lot about this issue. I hadn't heard of oral dyspraxia so that's interesting and the websites are very helpful. The Kaufman Clinic looks excellent. Do you know of anything similar in the UK? We are still waiting to see a NHS speech therapist. In the meantime I am trying to get a private appointment (although apparently there our none available in our area - Surrey - any suggestions?). If DS does have oral or verbal dyspraxia, do you have any advice on how to get the necessary treatment; I get the impression the NHS is unable to provide the necessary intensive one-to-one therapy required. I am even considering training myself but I'm not sure this could be done in time to help my own DS. Can you recommend any courses on the subject and/or good books. Also, have you found therapy helpful. I do hope that's not too many questions! Thank you.

[soapbox]

VickyHew - my DS may or may not have had oral/verbal dyspraxia! He was initially diagnosed with both but in time the improvement in his speech was such that they doubt whether it was that! He also had very bad glue ear which may have been part of the problem.

Jimjmas was a great help to me around this time and the resources she directed you towards are very good. Jimjams is also right in saying that your child is too young yet to know what the final diagnosis will be. Most speech therapists will not start working with a child until they are at least 2.5 years old, and then only if they are fully co-operative with therapy. They may do an assessment however at a younger age.

It is an expensive business going down the private route but I dread to think where we would be today if we had had to rely on the NHS. We hav been paying £60-70 a week for the last 2.5 years on therapy. After 20 months on the NHS waiting list we finally got 6 NHS sessions and then only because our private SALT pressurised them into it, as she knew the NHS therapists well enough to ring and chase them!


you can search for a therapist here when you search the list make sure to look for someone who has dyspraxia down as one of their special interests, not all SALTs cover all speech disorders at the same level of proficiency!

[Jimjams]

The UK centre of excellence is the Nuffield Speech and Hearing Clinic in London. They develped the Nuffield system which os often used in the UK to help with verbal dyspraxia. Another option is to get Kaufman cards from nancy Kaufma- they're quite easy to follow. She came to the UK last year and did an excellent day long workshop- very very useful- lots of video case studies as well. It may be worth emailing her to ask if she plans to visit the UK again soon. She also will look at video of your child and giver her opinion/tips etc. I know itr seems slightly mad to start exchanging emails with the States but we found her very helpful when we were getting nowehre very quickly over here.

The best way is to do the treatment yourself. For a child with verbal dyspraxia it's failry striaghtforward- although it may take them a long time to "get there". i'd also recommend regular reviews with a SALT, and unfortunately the only way to really guarantee that is pay for someone.

DS1 probably has verbal dyspraxia but he's also severely autistic so therapy with him is tricky (for example to use the kaufman cards a child has to understand the concept of copying - and he doesn't).

DS2 is now 3 and speaking pretty much properly but his speech was all over the place 6 months ago. he was assessed as having a speech disorder (although now everyone thinks he was copying ds1) and that was when I attended nancy kaufman's workshop. he loved the kaufman cards and they were easy to do. I don't think it was the therapy that did it for him though- he was just odd. he literally wen from being incomrehensible to talking properly overnight. DS1's SALt passed out- we went away for a week and came back with him talking!

[Jimjams]

Is that for 2 sessions a week soapbox? Prob not thinking about it. Avergae SALT is 55 pounds an hour- we paid £35 but that was in Devon and she was incredibly good value (excellent as well) Glad to hear your son is doing well now.

[soapbox]

I wish Jimjams - £60 an hour if you go to her house £70 if she come's to yours or as now to DS's school - I try to say it very quickly, it hurts otherwuse

I just feel madder than mad for those that can't afford it - where the hell are they supposed to go

By the way sent the second lot of mags today for DS1 - hope he likes them - some good dishwasher ads in these ones but no washing machines

[soapbox]

Its such hard work - now he's at school and has reading every night and homework at the weekend - its hard to find the time to do the speech work - but without it he makes such slow progress!

The SENCO at his school will probably start doing some extra work at school with him but as its a private school they charge for her time too. I think we'll need to do that though as he's becoming uncooperative at home when I'm trying to do it with him as he's just too tired from school and needs time for play. He is doing well - speech is understandable to strangers now but still not completely 'there' yet. Working on the 'pl' 'bl' 'cl' blends at the moment but it takes a long time for any sounds to normalise themselves into speech! AH well, could have been a lot worse though

I'm glad your DS2 is making good progress! Long may it continue

[VickyHew]

Many thanks soapbox and Jimjams for your replies and sorry for the delay in responding (I'm using my husband's work computer). Now that I have a lot more information I can find the help I need and will let you know how things work out. Thanks again !