Verbal Dyspraxia

[clare40]

My ds is 2.1 yrs so still very young, but doesn't say any words and so we saw a speech therapist, who said it was still too early to diagnose but he was showing signs of verbal dyspraxia. Has anyone had experience of this? What has been yr dc story? What do you think has helped the most?

Thank you for your replies. Xx

Well the words 'verbal dyspraxia' have never been used but my DS has the characteristics of this. In fact he has never actually been given a label but basically his has problems with articulating sounds and also many of his sounds were disordered. He is 5 tomorrow and now receiving speech therapy. At 2 he did say some words but not many and at his two year review we were told that we should not worry yet, he is a boy, a second child etc. But at 3 he was still not able to be understood by anyone who did not know him well. It took us a while to get therapy for him but by just after 4 he had been assessed and was starting some weekly group therapy sessions. Basically, he was unable to make the mouth shapes for many of the sounds and so lots of sounds were missing completely, he also left off the ends of most words (and to be honest at this point many of the beginnings and some sounds in the middle too)!! As well as that some of his sounds were disordered so for time he would say pime, for pig he would say kig etc.
Group therapy involved things to help him make the correct shapes and strengthen oral muscles so bubble blowing, using whistles etc. He now has individual therapy which is more intense and he is working on articulating the sounds he has trouble with- he started with f and is now working on s. He also works on adding the final sounds onto his words. Since Sept he has also been seeing a private SALT as NHS here is only in short blocks of 5 weeks with waiting times in between!
In short we still have a long way to go but in the last 2 months (since having individual and private therapy) he has improved phenomenally. He can now articulate f and s and is starting to use the f in particular in general conversations at times. Also many of the final sounds are now being added by him without having to be reminded and best of all I have heard him talk to teachers, shop assistants etc and them answer him without looking at me for a translation.
The weekly sessions have really helped him but that is partly because he is now old enough to cope with the work and length in these sessions. At the age of your DS I would recommend lots of activities to help build the oral muscles e.g. bubble blowing, playing recorders, blowing a ball with a straw etc.