Does verbal dyspraxia only effect speech?

[adrianna1]

...... or does it also effect..social interaction, play, attention etc?

My SALT said that verbal dyspraxia should only effect speech...as my child is not socially motivated to sit in circle time, loses interest quickly and walks away to play with something interesting. He has not got verbal dyspraxia.

Not being able to communicate effectively and make yourself understood by your peers can be terribly de-motivating and I expect that the temptation to give up and walk away when you feel left out would be quite great.

I agree with ouryve there can be circumstances where speech and language difficulties can impact on social skills especially when children become disheartened with not being understood.

However I also have experience of a multi disciplinery team getting so hung up on speech and language difficulties that they were prepared to overlook a considerable number of Asd type symptoms and the child concerned actually does now have a primary dx of Asd.

It can be very hard to unpick, sorry not much help.

Good luck

How old is your son? My eldest son has speech problems (possibly verbal dyspraxia)

Sorry, typing over a baby... and he was terrible at playgroup as soon as it ws time to sit down for songs or activities although he had very good concentration at other times ie reading books, looking at displays in a museum. He started to behave better when he started kindergarten at 3.5yo, but only in as much as he would wander off rather than make a big fuss. He's now 5 and has learnt to sit down with the rest of his class And behaves well.I'm sure the speech problem was at the root of his behaviour, as it made it difficult for him to join in and he felt excluded and cross. As he's matured he's better able toco trol himself

@mrshunkermun... thanks for replying..My son has just turned four... though in my situation they are focusing on my son's second re-assessment for autism..so unless that it's excluded..they are not really going to look into whether he has a speech impairment.