Verbal dyspraxia

[used2bthin]

Hi, having spoken to another mnetter about this I thought maybe I would start my own thread. Ihave just been looking through the archives at threads about verbal dyspraxia and suspect this may be one of the causes of my DD's S and L delay.

DD also has glue ear but audiology and ent have both said they suspect that that is not the only cause of her s and l problems. DD hhas had SALT since she was two and is now 3.8. She has another, genetic condition which shouldn't affect her developmentally unless she lost consciousness for long enough to cause damage and although DD has become unresponsive a few times it has never been for very long. She has had two general anaesthetics and lots of hospital stays which was suspected to be the cause at one point.

Anyway DD dribbles lots and has extremely unclear speech. Her language has progressed a lot, at two she only had one word, used for everything, now she tends to repeat her few phrases that we understand and a couple of these "oh dear" and some others are clear but most of her speech is very hard to make out for me, impossible for most. For example she says beebor and that means shoes on (?), she still uses the early sounds b and d to begin most words (train is said as bain)etc etc. With a lot of SALT she is now able to do f and t sounds sometimes with lots of encouragement but is unable to use them as a part of a word so if we are doing fish she will say fffff bish.

From reading through I see a couple of mumsnetters have experience of this so I wondered if anyone had any words of wisdom or ideas for what to do, I have lef a message with the SALT butam almost certain this is what she has been hinting at. Would a formal diagnosis help DD? The problem we seem to have is people assume that her overall development is behind and I am not at all sure that it is and am desperate to help her before she becomes too aware of yet another difference.

Also are there causes? And anyone know what the long term outcome is generally? Will dd always need salt?

My daughter also had delayed speech and has been seeing a SALT for abt 18 months now. had initially been diagnosed as having a phonological disorder. If i look back on the 18 months there has been a huge progress but with her to start school there arre other issues. She is at times totally unintelligible in a conversation - as a result i met a SALT privately who immediately diagnosed it as verbal dyspraxia. This was taking into account her feeding history as a baby/ toddler. For a long time she wasnted only pureed foods and struggled with solids. She does have limited toungue movement - especially towards the front of the mouth. My understanding of the condition id that it is very hard to diagnose at a younger age since the goal posts are different. but you need to insist with the SALT to do a formal assessment if you have any doubts at all. No known causes for the condition. Long term i believe the child is taught to overcome his disability and can lead a totally normal full life. The salt helps equip the child with tools to deal with and overcome dyspraxia

Thank you, that is reassuring that children can overcome this with help.

Te SALT asked lots of questions about DDand feeding when we first started and said that DDshould be able to use a straw. She now has a special straw to help her use the right muscles and other exercises that having read about verbal dyspraxia a bit, seem aimed at helping that, or at least at muscle weakness around the jaw. DD had what was possibly a stomach ulcer/irritation at 7 months and went from solids to just milk and it was a long time before she could cope with lumpier textures after that as she used to gag and vomit. She still won't eat meat unless it is very finely chopped or so soft it disappears.

How old is your DD now?

Used2bethin It does get better. Dd1 has verbal & oral dyspraxia & a phonological disorder and this time last year had barely a dozen words. She's now been in a S & l unit and has made huge progress and can hold very basic conversations with me & answer questions with langaugae which can sometimes be understood by strangers.She has many, many more speech sounds than a year ago,though her language also has a very long way to go. I suppose the disheartening thing is that progress is so desparately slow, and only regular intensive therapy will help
A formal diagnosis will not necessarily change the therapy your DD gets, but IMO will help you to understand what its going on.It may also point towards some subtle motor skill difficulties which you may or may not be aware of. Keep at all the straw sucking, bubble blowing, blow football,chewing things ( carrot sticks, chewy granola bars etc), making faces in the mirror - all this really does help build muscle and facial awareness which is so important.
Noone knows what the cause is, except that it is neurological but all the SLT's I have met have said that children are generally discharged from SLT by the age of 7 or 8

My DS (5) has moderate verbal dyspraxia diagnosed aged 3. He had no problems with solids but dribbled (still does) and couldnt stick his tongue out or blow candles. His articultion was very poor with most consonents replaced with a strange fricative sound. His actual language was not that delayed and his receptive language no problem.

He also has motor problems and has a diagnosis of motor dyspraxia with issues with fine and gross motor skills and has now been put on the autistic spectrum but dont panic-these disorders often overlap but not always.

Causes are thought to be genetic-does anyone else in the family have a history of speech issues?

SALT has been a godsend for us-we had intensive salt for a year and still see salt once a month with lots of exercises. DS speech has improved beyond all recognition and there is all hope he will gain normal speech.

Your DD would definately benefit from a formal diagnosis to access support and help at school.

Dont lose hope-my DS is doing just fine in s and l now.

HTH

I have ds who has both verbal and oral dyspraxia and is due to start in a S&l unit in September so from that point of view a dx helped and for me it has made a differnace to help he gets as a disorder rather than a delay which people presume he will catch up

bubble2bubble lovely to hear how well your DD is doing, can Iask more about the s and l unit? Was she referred by your SALT? I moved DD to a pre school which I actually don't like as much as her other one but they do have speech therapists there one morning a week so it was a big enough advantage to move her there three mornings.

My DD had early ish speech and was speaking clearly until just over 13months. I didn't really realise what had happened for another few months but during that time she had her first ear infection (so possibly the glue ear started), then an operation, we moved house then she had five hospital trips or stays in as many weeks. So really hard to know what if any of that was the cause but I think, since her health is now so much better, that she would have caught up by now if it was just due to stress as the SALT first suspected. So want a cause although I know it wouldn't change anything other than my occasional wobble about whether she has been delayed through anything I have or havent done. I know that is irrational!

oddgirl also great to hear about your DS, does he need extra support at school? The SALT mentioned that we may need to get the ball rolling for this with DD soon, she will start sept 2011 thogh as she is september born. I am glad as it is an extra year to try and help her catch up a bit. What you say about genetics is interesting. I had speech therapy at ae two and a half but only because I substituted g for d and c for t, my language was actually scarily advanced according to my (possibly biased)mother. mind you I think I will cry if DD has something else genetic, she already has a serious inherited metabolic condition and psoriasis and acid reflux. Also she had either a fit or fainted a few weeks ago which has had me worried about possible epilepsy as her Dad's mum had epilepsy. he is beautiful but worries me sick this DD of mine!

Sorry wrote ages ago and then had to nip out so just posted.Thanks, rounadthebend I didn't know there was a difference between oral and verbal dyspraxia? I that case Iam not sure which one I looked up but think it was verbal.

Good to know that a diagnosis may help with accessing services, wonder if we have a s and l unit near me.

My dd2 3.2,is non-verbal,dribbles constantly,but has no probs eating or drinking(with a straw or otherwise).My SALT is very puzzled by her but said she could not dx v/o dyspraxia yet,as she was too young.We are currently waiting on a neuro ref & are very frustrated at the small amount of SALT she gets.She has made NO progress in over a year,but no-one can seem to help us!!!

ds got his at 3.8 on nhs and then confirmed by ican

Chickesaresafe

same problem here the more complicated the problem the less input you get , have you applied for a statement so you can ask for speech unit to be named

usedto bethin

Ds will be going from September he is not going to nearesst one which is about 30 mins away his is bit further around 50 mins but more suitable Lea will provide transport
.Ds had a statement before school and we did try ms with support but the help was just not there and Lea agreed that ds needed the input and just last few weeks named the school/unit I want

usedtobethin DD's S & L unit is basically a class within a primary where there are only 9 kids with a teacher, a TA & a speech therapist.

So basically they all get individual therapy 4 days a week & some group work as well. Importantly also they are getting a lot of individual attention for reading & writing as sadly difficulties with literacy often go along with S & L difficulties

DD's referral was through Educational Psychology & is a long drawn out process- which is probably why everyone's jumping on here straightaway telling you to get the statementing started asap

roundthebedn4 really glad you got a result at last

Thanks everyone, I am feeling very motivated t get this all started and typically, the SALT isn't around! I also am waiting for an appointment with community paeds re a global developmental assessment so am guessing that would be where we would get a diagnosis if we are going to get one? The doctor refferred us months ago and not had a letter yet, I rang and asked to check it had gone through and the receptionist was going to email the dr wondr if I should call again or maybe the appointments take ages to come through. e have a lot of appointments but they usually come through well in advance even if there is a long wait.

I just rang the council advice line and spoke to someone who told me there is a s and l unit in a school in a different town but it isn't that far from us. She said though that DD may not meet the requirements for a statement but she is surprised DD isn't on something called action plus, given her needs. Anyone know about action plus? I think that may be what the SALT meant by putting things in place ready for school?

Very much agree about the more complicated thing, I am sure audiogy looked at DD's records and thought blimey loads going on and just assumed developmental delay. Te SALT has also used DDs conditon as an explanation a few times which I don't agree with as her condition isnt associated with any delays unless there is poor control of it or loss of consciousness which there hasnt been.

Bubbletobubble DDhas an eduational psychologist. Or maybe she is a child psychologist not educational, hmm. She is for her condition but I wonder if I should emailher, Iwas meant to a year ago about something else but chickened out as I didnt want to rake up old wounds.

Just looked up action plans i think that the playgroup were talking about that for Dd. I thought it was with regard to her medical needs but now Iam wondering! Have had several communication problems with them so it has all got a bit confusing!

There is also a link on the direct gov page about SEN to mumsnet!

oh and dont listen to them saying wont get a statement swear they trot that line out all the time should have on record

yes we was told for a long time taht ds had GDD but ican report showed this to be incorrect and that his cognitive devlopment was within normal hence my demanding and getting speech unit as they tend look sidewards if have dx of GDD and any other diffculties was caused by his pd , which now been dx as cp

Action plus would be initiated when she started school-My DS was automatically placed on school action plus because he had outside agencies (ie a SALT and OT) involved in his care. We have had our request for assessment for statementing accepted-this can take forever and you need lots of evidence that your DC cannot access the curriculum because of his difficulties. My DS cannot be staemented on S and L as he is now within an age appropriate range. Whilst I am of course thrilled by this, s and L issues are much easier to statement on because speech is seen as an "educational" need. OT is much harder apparently which is what we are currently going for.

At school currently DS gets 3.5 hours per week 1-1 which isnt enough but for him it isnt really his sand l causing him the main problems-its sensory issues and fine and gross motor skills so I would take advice from others re S and L help at school.

Really hope things get sorted-imo us pushing very hard for OT and SALT when DS was very young has been invaluable because it has meant he started school on everyones radar so when he ran into inevitable difficulties there was a cushion of people for him to land on...

Ds had action plus at nursey and I started the statement request in the January the lea was all for waiting and seeing but Essex are pretty crap Herts seem be better though were still sorting out it in statement

roundthebend no-one has even hinted at a speech unit,we are getting her statement sorted with the help of CDC,but that is just for local pre-school.
Every professional says she is a complicated case & with no dx,no-one seems to know what to do.She is making no progress whatsoever,I am at a loss as who's door to bang on

Hmm can you put in writing to salt that you are considering speech uniit not sure if you have a paed but they can do direct referal to Nuffield

Otherwise I would say contact Ican in few months time sadly sometimes only way to get straight answer is to go private

it was their report that I used as evidence for requesting speech unit in fact I had already been looked at a few before hitting the lea with it. he was fully assesed at ican by s&l therapist a speech teacher and a ep and they applyec all same standard tests same as lea and nhs salt and Lea have just gone with it

Some really great advice on here, oddgirl that makes sense, DD certainlyhas a lot of professionals involved at least.

Chickens, so sorry to hear how frustrating a time you are having, I completely sympathise with not knowing whose door to bang on. I hope you get thigs started for your DD too, its so upsetting that these things can be so area dependant.

I have just remembered that ican didnt call back will get on to them again tomorrow as have heard great things about them.