Where are we Exactly?

This time a year and a half ago, I could have named this post "Waiting on Words". Thankfully, we aren't there now, but we very much have a ways to go. I am quite sure J will have many years of speech therapy, but let's remember where we were and where we are now. Progress comes at a much slower pace for most apraxic kids than children with just a speech delay. There are some consistent errors amongst these children, but overall each child is different. The disorder can be baffling to parents and SLPs. It is comforting to look back at our speech folder from a year ago, September 2010, and see that we were working on vowel sounds, and "Dada" "Mama" "moo" neigh" "and we were trying to get "joo" for "juice". He would tell us "all di" if he wanted something to be over. He gave some good approximations and imitated well. Today, J can label many items, make simple requests, and get his point across with just two word phrases. For example, a conversation with him might go something like this: J: Mama car? Mommy: "Oh, you want to go in Mommy's car? Where do you want to go, the store?" J: Store (sto), yeah (enthusiastically). Mommy: Well, we can't go there now. J: "Donald?"...And so on, until the two of us come up with something we both agree on. :) He will tell me things like "Luke sleep" or "Sit, Mama" if Dave is driving, and Luke needs me in the backseat, "Mama Luke" if he wants me to take Luke, so Dave can play with him. All of this is, of course, significantly behind his peers, BUT it is the nature of the disorder and tremendous progress! He has enough confidence to talk to many adults, but still needs a boost to talk to his peers. This weekend, he requested to watch Toy Story by saying "I want (wah) Woody Buzz" and this is HUGE, a HUGE STEP IN PROGRESS for him. We absolutely LOVE hearing new words from him; however we still face the obstacle of the clarity of the words. For example, a common problem for many kids with apraxia is vowel distortion, and Jackson certainly deals with this problem. Examples: He pronounces Jake and Jack as Jeck, firetruck is fi-treck, police car is peace-car, potty is petty. Then, many apraxic kids will put their own unique spin on words. (i.e. a dog was once "wuff" (wuh) and now he says "wuh-dog"). Funny thing is that somewhat more difficult words come out pretty clear, apple juice, sheep, football, etc. Another issue is that he will add an extra sound onto words (i.e. fun will be fun-e or eat may be eat-uh)or he will confuse words that have similarities. A little boy in his class has a name that begins with the sound "Kee" and J sticks the /o/ sound right in front like he is saying "ok". If you think about his vowel distortion and how the boy's name begins, I totally see why he does it. Sometimes, he will self-correct, but he will put "I" in front of "pray", because he says "Ipad" so often. Finally, something that is hard for him and others is singing. Last week, Lori sang "Row Row Row Your Boat" and he sang "Row Row" with her and filled in "boat", "stream", and "dream". It was precious and such an accomplishment!



This is pretty much J's reaction when you praise him for something that he said really well.