Does anyone have a child with verbal apraxia? Really worried about DS.

[eastendmummy]

DS1 is 2 years and 5 months and has no words, at all. He has fantastic understanding and communicates with pointing and gesturing as well as some sounds but not words. He was diagnosed with glue ear about 3 months ago and had grommets inserted 6 weeks ago.

His speech has not improved at all although his hearing has. He does not copy sounds and seems unable to make many speech sounds.

He has said the odd word when playing but then not been able to repeat it and when encouraged he becomes really shy. We play with him a lot, he loves to sit and read books and is generally a very charming and lovely boy, but it's so hard to spend every day with him when he can't speak! It's been harder since DS2 was born 3 months ago.

A friend who is a speech therapist in the US thinks he may have verbal apraxia and therefore there is a disconnect between his brain and his mouth resulting in the inability to repeat sounds and form words. If this is the case, then he will need intensive therapy and I'm taking him to the doctors on Monday to push for a referral.

I'm so worried about him and about his ability to interact with his peers. It's now really obvious that he's a long way behind and I'm really concerned for the long term prognosis if this is the diagnosis.

Has anyone else had a child with this condition? How has it been treated and what have been the results?

Just seen your post and want to reply.Someone arriving in 1 minute for a coffee, so marking my spot and will return - I promise!!!!

DD3 is now 16 years old. She did not say anything until she was 3+. She was diagnosed with verbal and oral dyspraxia. Could only say 4 words until she was 7. (No, mum, duck, barbie ) Other than that was unitelligiable noises and murmerings. Lots of vowel sounds from about 3.6.

friend is here. Will be back later.......

DD is now doing really well, by the way.

It sounds as though you should talk to your GP about your concerns and that maybe speech therapy is required. If he hasn't been able to hear properly up to now then it would have been more difficult to copy sounds. Now that he can hear properly, perhaps with the right kind of encouragment and a few exercises he'll be able to catch up really quickly. I don't think well-meaning friends diagnosing him from a distance really helps.

Thanks to you both for your replies. My SLT friend in the US does know DS and she helped me to push the GP for a referral for his glue ear. GPs were of the wait and see attitude and often said 'he's not speaking because he's a boy and he's lazy' which I just do not agree with. In the end we had to pay for it to be done privately despite 25% hearing loss as our trust does not routinely pay for grommets. I'm taking him to the GP on Monday though so hopefully they will be more helpful this time. I know though that the grommets need time to work and he's probably starting from a very low level as his hearing was so badly affected, but I can't help feeling that there is more to it.

I've done some reading about verbal apraxia and it does fit DS really well - the descriptions of the type of sounds he makes, how he otherwise communicates, his reaction when encouraged to repeat sounds. He has also never blown a raspberry and doesn't blow e.g. if his food is hot, he doesn't understand how to blow out of his mouth. It seems as though he has very little control of his verbal communication.

I may well be panicking though, but it would be great to hear from others who have had a child go through this.

Hiya-my DS (now 5) has moderate verbal dyspraxia. He actually had quite a few words at your DS age but cut off all the endings-we first thought glue ear but this was ruled out.As he grew older he had similar problems to your DS with limited ability to copy facial expressions,couldnt blow or stick out his tongue and speech very distorted with funny back of throat sound used to replace all consonents. Again like your DS receptive language was ok.
I would ask for a referral to speech and language as it can take a w hile for an appointment (at least 3 months here).

BUT fast forward 3 years and DS so much better-hols normal conversations,can blow and stick tongue out and imitate faces...understood most of the time by mst people-speech sometimes a bit garbled if excited!! So pls dont lose hope-he will get there even if he does have apraxia.
Should point out my DS also has other issues (ASD and motor dyspraxia) so these dont help but have met several children who were non-verbal at 2 who came on leaps and bounds.

HTH

Back!

You have had some good replies, so hopefully they will help you.

Personally, I would push for a referral to SALT, just because it may take a long time for an appointment. If DSs speech problems are all to do with his ears and he starts to catch up quickly, the referral can always be cancelled, but at least you are one step ahead for now.

However, even if his problems are due to his hearing he may need some help to be able to imitate the sounds and lip movements.

Does he dribble a lot? DId he dribble as a baby? I ask this because DD was a constant dribbler because she had no control of her muscles around her mouth.

Dont worry about it. I know that is easier to say. As I said before DD is now a lovely 16 year old. Her speech is fine, she still gets a little muddles with words at time and we ahve had some real laughs with mixed up words, but her personality has always shone through. When she was unable to talk at all she learnt to "act out" whatever she wanted.
Her mouth muscles dont really work as other peoples do, but it is only something a mum would notice and nobody else ever sees anything odd
Lots of mouth exercises now being done in the form of kissing her boyfriend!! - when she kissed me as a child it was more like a open slobber from a fish, but apparently this has been perfected!!

Good to hear about the kissing technique improving positive..DS expert at dribbly open mouthed fish kisses!! Funnily enough it crossed my mind the other day that his snogging technoque might be really poor when he gets older-thanks to your DD its ggod to know practice makes perfect...

Very funny to hear about the kissing technique! DS isn't at all dribbly and never really has been so maybe that's a positive sign? Thanks for sharing your experiences with me. He hasn't been formally diagnosed but I'm feeling really teary at the thought of it possibly being more than just speech delay. I'm going to stop googling although have found some useful info so need to sit and have a read.

Hi

DS2 has verbal dyspraxia/apraxia alongside his autism

He has had SALT which has helped but also we used some nutritional support, in particular EFAs

There is some decent information at the Cherub.org site which also links you to a chat group at yahoo which is also a great source of info.

TBH the support and advice in the UK is pretty poor. USA sites are much more focussed and up to date - especially re biomedical approaches - should that interest you.

DS2 lost all burgeoning speech at 18 moths and didn't speak again unto we started SALT plus EFAs and some other stuff aged 4.
I regret how long I waited tbh but his autism slightly masked his basic speech difficulties.

Interesting pagwatch-we also started EFA supplementation and saw surges in speech

Thanks Pagwatch. It's funny that you mention EFAs as I've just ordered some and also have been on Cherab.org which is really useful. There seems to be a lot of positive stories about EFAs although I really don't understand the link, but am happy to give anything a go. I'm pretty sure that DS isn't showing signs of autism, but I am aware that the verbal apraxia could also be combined with other things. He has excellent gross motor skills, has good balance, well coordinated and can run, jump and so looks like his peers in all ways other than speech.

Thanks again for your advice.

Sorry to butt in but I have a late talker and don't know what EFA's are. Can anyone enlighten me?

EFA's are a fish oil supplement that seem to have a very positive effect on children's speech. If you google ProEfa you should find lots of info. Hope that helps

Thank you for that. I will take a look.

Essential fatty acids

They are the omegas found in oily fish such as tuna and mackrel etc.
they appear to have a roll in certain brain function. They are pretty fashionable at the moment, alleged to help with everything from intelligence through concentration and behaviour.
Some of the stuff is crap marketinggone mad. But there does seem to be reputable links to late speech and concentration.
Certainly DS2 developed well when we introduced them.

You can find brands in Boots but it is an area where quality makes a difference. I used Nordic Naturals which you can get on line.

I don't think they work for every child but I am certain they are worth a few months trial with late talking children

I notice a lot of them say 'for use in the over 3s' My ds is 2 1/2. Would it be a problem if he had them?

My ds is the same age and in the states they are given to under 3 so i'm going to try them

Meant to say eastendmummy-pop over to the special needs board-loads of useful advice re speech and lang delay and we are a very friendly bunch..

Thanks oddgirl!

Wow I am now very interested in getting some EFA for ds having read this but just had a quick google and all the junior varieties seem to be soft gums which DS won't eat - he doesn't like jelly-type sweets.

Does anyone use a liquid EFA supplement? DS is 3.4.

There are loads of type available from Liquid through to capsules which you can split to put in drinks etc.

Be careful of haliborange and other cheaper childrens brands . They are often packed with artificial olours and sweetners

EyeQ from boots comes as a liquid

Hi I suspect my DS has this condition.

He is under SALT and in 2 weeks time I am going armed with all of my collected knowledge, videos of DS and notes taken.He is a very very fussy eater - but he will eat loads of .......FISH!! Esp the oily fish, so I dread to think what he might be like..... he has been estimated to have expressive speech of 12 months and understanding of about 4.5 yrs. he is 2yrs 9 months. Very bright and talks non stop - all from the back of his throat etc. he has lost words he could say a long time ago. has said words once and never ever again. He doesn't dribble a lot though, and nor has he ever done.

we are also at the hospital at the end of the month, and over the phone she said to me "oh he's lazy then" she has never even met him. He def think he is talking. If you say back to him what he has just said - well if he says "gnn gnn gnn gnn" and I say "gnn gnn gnn gnn" he says "NO!!" "gnn gnn gnn gnn" sigh.....when visiting a preschool recently, she said he would HAVE to speak when he comes here - I said well good luck Mrs - he CAN'T BLOODY WELL SPEAK!!

Oh and have realised that although the few words (and I mean few - cannot put two words together at all) are very clear, mostly he hardly opens his mouth to say them but pretty sure he can blow, all be it badly

Thanks pagwatch. I'll look in Boots today

eastendmummy I'm no expert but I would have thought the glue ear is and has been the major factor inhibiting his speech for all this time, not a neurological condition. All this time he has just not been able to hear properly and missed all the cues for speech development. Hopefully you can insist on speech therapy to help him catch up.

my boy has verbal dyspraxia - feel free to contact me if you want a great person to assess him privately, which you could get done immediately - or the centre for verbal dyspraxia on the NHS is the Nuffield and you could try getting referred there www.ndp3.org/. If you genuinely think that's what it is though I really wouldn't wait to get seen through the system. It's a full on disorder and needs intensive and the right kind of therapy.

There are lots of exercises that you can do with a child with verbal dyspraxia on the download section of the Dyspraxia Foundation's website.