Speech Comparison of Peanut

This is a video over the course of 4 months.  The first video is when Peanut can barely get two words out.  He was repeating the first syllable over and over because of the motor planning issues.  The repetition wasn't always this bad but we caught an exceptionally bad moment on tape.  The second part is when we started corn-free with him which has made such a world of difference.  He still isn't saying the ends of words and has a much easier time with the word in isolation verses the words in combination.  The last part is Peanut after 4- months corn free, with a fish oil supplement and a probiotic.  He also works exceptionally hard at his speech therapy daily.

http://youtu.be/qqVCl7ph8yM

A glimpse into Apraxia

Peanut has been in speech therapy for almost a year and a half and he has made some amazing progress.  So much so that people will say things like "I don't think he needs therapy" or "he talks so well, are you sure he has a speech disorder".  I know they are trying to be helpful or supportive but the truth is that apraxia isn't just a speech delay.  He can say words and sounds in isolation but when those same words or sounds are put in a different order or put together he can't say them at all.  Today I was reading some articles and case studies to prepare for his eligibility meeting for Child Find this afternoon and I found this case study that put it so perfectly that I had to clip part to help others understand.

A Case Study of Childhood Apraxia of Speech

by Patti Hamaguchi, M.A., CCC-SLP

In terms of the speech-language assessment, I found that Jamie's difficulties were a pretty classic case of "dyspraxia", also known as "Developmental Dyspraxia of Speech" or apraxia. While he had been previously identified as having a severe articulation disorder, the word dyspraxia never appeared in any of his previous evaluation reports. How did I know? Jamie was able to produce nearly all the vowel and consonant sounds in isolation. If I said, "Jamie, say 'ah' (as in *apple*), he could do it.  He could say "apple" if he concentrated. He could say "pie". But if I asked him to say "apple pie", this is what I heard: "paboo bie". If I asked him to say it three times, I would get three answers. Another attempt might sound like "pappie bah". There was no consistency. He often produced single words clearly, but fell apart in phrases and conversation. Words with more than one syllable were also much more difficult for him to pronounce. Sounds that were produced in one word (the "s" in "bu*s*") were left off in other places ("s" in the phrase "I *s*ee"). Moreover, his global difficulty with sequencing, fine-motor, and sensory integration was typical for children with dyspraxia. He could tell what he said wasn't sounding right, and was visibly frustrated, but couldn't *sequence* the sounds and syllables to match what I said.

Speech Therapy - 11/14

We played the most horrifically, disgusting game in speech therapy today and of course, Peanut loved it.  His SLP brought a game called Doggy Doo.  Do you see where this is going?  So yes, you make a doggie cookie out of gak, then you feed the doggie the cookie, take it for a walk and oh, yes, it poops and you clean it up with a shovel.  It was downright nasty.  As far as it's ability to get Peanut to practice talking - it was fantastic.  So fantastic I actually considered purchasing it until I realized that it is so disgusting that I just can't do it.  He worked on walk the dog, put in mouth, make a cookie and he did great.  He is starting to be able to fix words that start with a hard "c".  So while he doesn't naturally say cookie (he says dookie) if I ask him to fix it, he will prompt himself and get it after a few tries.

We also started making his video for his application to the Apraxia speech therapy class.  It is so much better that his SLP asks him the questions because he is a lot more cooperative with her and is used to responding to her immediately.  We asked him to pick a game that he wanted to play and he picked Connect 4 or as he calls it "Money game".  So after each question, he got a piece of money.  It went really well until my video recorder ran out of battery.  Sigh.

On a "I hate apraxia" note, this weekend Peanut really wanted to say the word "restaurant". We couldn't figure out what word he was trying to say as it was coming out "shark" or "sock" or "shant".  He came over to me and my mom and prompted himself and said "fix it" and then said "Mommy help me talk please".  Oh it broke my heart in half.  We figured out the word he was working on and he moved on and now I know that approximation and it's meaning to avoid that again.  I just hate that he has to struggle so much and is getting old enough to be more understanding of the fact that he can't say certain thing.

What is that?

When Peanut and I read books he is always pointing at different objects and demanding that I tell him what they are.  He is always saying "whhhhs mama" and since I know what he means I usually would answer him.  "That is a balloon"  "That is a bear".....

Over the last few weeks I have insisted that he says "What is that" and since he can't actually say all those words in order I would either accept "What that" or we would break it out and he would repeat each word one at time for me.  I think he was annoyed with me for making him do this but he was a trooper and either did what I asked or just stopped asking.

Tonight I was reading him and his brother a book.  He was talking to me but there was a commotion and I had to intervene with my other two kids and Peanut took my face in his hands, turned me to look at him and yelled "What is that Mama!??"  I was so surprised to hear all of those words I kissed him.  He wiped it off and pointed again.

It was short lived because when I asked him to say it again he couldn't do it, but we got it once and we will get it again!  It is very typical for apraxic kids to have an easier time saying things that they aren't asked or prompted to say.  Peanut can say things once and then if he stops to think too hard about it (because I have asked him to repeat it) he can't do it.  But we will keep practicing and celebrate each and every time he gets it!

Speech Therapy 11/7

Peanut's SLP is noticing a trend that is both upsetting and heartening at the same time.  She is having a harder and harder time understanding him.  That doesn't sound good, right?  I am having to do a lot more translation for her through the sessions and had noticed the same thing.  She said that it is to be expected because his vocabulary is growing so much that now he is talking to her about things from the past or about his feelings.  Before he would only talk in 1-2 words and only about the objects in front of him.  Now he talks in 6-7 word sentences about whatever thoughts come into his head including stories of me taking his chicken at dinner. I wish that he was more clear when he was talking but I love his ever expanding vocabulary.

Today we worked on "I want the car" and "I need the car".  He would always say " I do want car" or "I do need car". This is because he has so carefully motor planned "I do" that he almost automatically adds it whenever he says "I".  He did great in his session and was very focused and cooperative.  He allowed any necessary prompting and played the games well.  We are continuing to work on "What is it?" and "Where is it?"  plus adding want, and need as well as any needed articles.

Peanut continues to be my hero every day by pushing through the struggle of talking every day to make sure that we know exactly what is going on in his adorable head.

The George Washington University Summer Apraxia Camp

The George Washington University (GWU) is offering an intensive summer camp for children diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) and we are determined to get Peanut into it if he is eligible.  We have already requested our information packet and video release forms and have asked our SLP to help us make the required video that will be used to determine eligibility.  


All participants will receive daily individual, small group (4-5 children), and large group treatment (9-10 children). Therapy will be provided by graduate level clinicians and supervised by a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist.  Each participant will be paired with a clinician in order to provide consistency and 1:1 supervision/support.  


This would be amazing especially because through Child Find, he wouldn't get any services over the summer.  We are going to have to find something else to supplement for him through the summer in addition but this camp would be the first truly intensive treatment we would have for him.  I am excited to see what something that intensive can do for his progress.  


Peanut deserves every opportunity and we are going to do everything we can to get him in including figuring out how to find the $1000 for two weeks of intensive therapy.

Update on Hearing and Vision

Peanut has perfect hearing and they were very impressed with how cooperative he was at the activities.  He was a perfect little gentleman and performed perfectly.  His tympangram (I am not spelling that correctly) showed that he has perfect middle ear pressure.

His nearsightedness has disappeared!!  But really that doesn't change the outcome.  He has a stigmatism this will make it necessary for him to wear glasses.  We are going to wait another 6 months or so in hopes that maybe he won't break them as often and will wear them more often......

Transitioning Programs

We have started the process to transition Peanut from the Early Intervention Program to the Child Find program.  For us, this is both exciting and scary.  It is exciting because EI has a maximum level of assistance that they can offer and he already gets the maximum of 4 speech therapy sessions a month.  Child Find offers an infinite level of assistance based on the need of the child.  It is scary because we have the best SLP ever who is both prompt trained and works with a lot of kids with apraxia and we aren't guaranteed to get an SLP through Child Find that has the same expertise.  Traditional speech therapy techniques don't work for a child with apraxia so that would be very detrimental to his progress.

This is a very long drawn out process so while he doesn't have to transition until he turns 3 in March we started the process so that there wouldn't be any time between services.  We have competed the first step which was where Peanut and I met with a panel of people who would determine if they needed to get further testing for Peanut to determine his eligibility.  So we met with a speech language pathologist, a psychologist, a pediatric diagnostician, a social worker and a case manager (yes, this meeting was a bit intimidating) and after talking to me, reading what our SLP wrote up and getting to hear Peanut talk a little bit they determined that they don't need further testing to determine eligibility.  This made me happy because I didn't have to put Peanut through any more testing but at the same time it made me a little sad that they could tell he needed their help after only 10 minutes with us.

He is scheduled for a hearing test and we are going back to the pediatric ophthalmologist to see if his eye sight has corrected at all.  (We already know it is inevitable that he will need glasses but haven't determined when he will start wearing them.)

Classroom Visit

Peanut's SLP went to visit him at his preschool class.  He was so excited to see her and felt very special that he had his own visitor.  We prefer to use his weekly session as one-on-one time at our house to get the most out of that time as possible but also felt it important that she get to see him in a different environment.  She felt that he did a great job speaking clearly and that the other adults in the classroom understood him about 85% of the time.  That is a great percentage for a child with apraxia and it is probably that high because he only has to use a certain range of vocabulary in his school environment.  There is so much routine and familiarity that Peanut really only has to respond or communicate about his most insistent of desires.

While Peanut loves music, he hung back during music time partly due to the introduction of a new music teacher and partly because he had a friend to snuggle up with and sit with instead of participating.  It isn't clear which of those was the bigger factor.

All in all, she felt that he is doing well and adapting as needed to school.  She thought that his teacher was doing a great job engaging him and trying to understand him.  She is planning on visiting his class every other month or so to see his progress in a classroom setting.

Little Conversations

This afternoon I picked Peanut up from preschool (he goes twice a week from 9-12) and he came running up to me and hugged me.  Normally he says "mama home!" because those are the words that he has for "Yay, mama is here" or "Yay, mama came back just like she said she would".  But today he hugged my legs and said "Hi mama.  Baby nap today?"  I blinked a few times to adjust from what I had expected him to say and replied to him that yes, the baby had napped for me today.  Then he said "Good, that's good"

This was stunning to me.  He must have overheard me telling people that today was my coveted day when the boys were both at school and I didn't have to babysit anyone else's child from the preschool so I was hoping that the baby would take a long nap all morning to give me time to get things done.   He processed all of that and 3 hours later had words to ask me the question he wanted to ask me.  Oh and then he threw around all these new words in random order so I wasn't sure what point he was trying to make but obviously he had something to say.

Needless to say, it was a good talk.  I love being able to have good talk's with my Peanut.

I hate Apraxia

I don't use the "hate" word lightly.  But it is true, I hate apraxia.  It steals from my child and I hate it.  This week's speech therapy session went ok, but not great.  Peanut was a bit all over the place and hard to settle down to really work on his talking.  He flitted from one game to the next and if we tried to get him to work on words he didn't want to say he would just abandon the game and move onto something else.  But the reason that I just hate apraxia is having to watch him struggle.  We were playing a game and his slp asked him to say "take it" and he couldn't say it.  He kepts saying "tk it".  But the she asked him to say "take" and he said "take" perfectly but when paired with a simple word like "it" he loses the word.  This is because he has motor planned "take" but he hasn't motor planned "take it".  This is par for the course these days.  Peanut's vocabulary is constantly expanding but his sentence structures revolve around his motor planning.  So he will say "Sit you Mama now?" meaning "Can I sit with you now Mama?"  But if I ask him to say "Sit with you" just adding that "with" completely disintegrates his ability to motor plan the words he does know and he can't say the sentence.  I know that he is doing great and I know that he is just amazing in all that he has overcome but I hate what apraxia steals from him.

So needless to say we are still working on Who, What and Where but we are also trying to get the articles and prepositions into his sentences and into his motor-planning.  It is harder these days because if he doesn't want to say something he just skips that word that I have asked him to say and moves on.  We will prevail and I can't wait to say that Peanut is Apraxia resolved....we will get there.

2011 Northern Virginia Walk for Apraxia

These people are all heroes to our family.  We had a team of 23 people walk in the Northern Virginia Apraxia walk today and a bunch more who walked with us in spirit but couldn't actually make it this morning.  It was chaos and fun and exhausting and exhilarating.  The kids ran and walked and moved from stroller to wagon to stroller again.  We didn't walk the full 4.8 miles around the lake because we kind of thought that was quite a distance to tackle when 13 of our 23 team members where children and all under the age of 7.  Our team raised almost $400 for CASANA!  You are all Logan's Heroes today and forever.  Thank you all for the support and love that you showed our family.

And this guy, well he is the world's best biggest brother.  Peanut doesn't know it yet, but he has a protector, a friend and a teacher in his big brother.  Little Man ran and ran and ran and played and played with his friends and cousins while on the walk.  He was a champ about it not being all about him for a few hours and other than a brief fight over not getting to wear fancy clothes today he was an angel.

My personal hero is this sweet guy.  He walked and ran more than he rode in a stroller and was excited to finally be at his walk.  I don't know if he knew we were all there walking for him, but he knew that he was surrounded by people who love him.  He has so many words and has worked hard for each and every one of them.  He has the sweetest voice and an infectious smile.  Everyone that meets him walks away with a smile on their face because he is so genuine in his love for life.  

Speech Therapy - 9/12

Peanut was very energetic in his speech therapy session today which does not always lend itself to a productive session.  He was all over the place but his SLP is wonderful and just ran with him.  He would say words incorrectly but fix them easily and allowed his SLP to prompt him when he needed some extra help.  She worked on "come" and "money" and a lot of prepositional work like "on top" and "in basket" using our laundry basket and the Hi Ho Cherrio game.  Like I said, was all over so we didn't stick to one task for more than 5 or 10 minutes.  She is still amazed by the difference in his talking and how clear his words are now.

Sentences - he does much better with sentences that he structures on his own.  When asked to say a sentence he will pick out the words he wants to say or can say easily and leave the rest behind.  If we push him to say all 3 or 4 words it usually messes with a word that he does say.  The pacing card is still helping with this but I have to get better about not letting him slide with a "go park now" and need to force the "go to park now".  I have let it slide because when you just add that little bitty "it" it turns a perfectly said sentence into "go to tark tow".  But practice makes perfect.

This was the last session that Peanut's big brother will be here for since school starts tomorrow.  This is a huge relief as it is a big distraction for him when his big brother is doing something in another room like watching a movie.

I am going to continue to work on the "what", "who" and "why" and make him say more of the sentence than he chooses.  I am looking forward to a less complicated and less energetic session next week.  I think it will involve more playdough play since that is some of his favorite stuff to do.  (good thing Santa knows this and will be delivering an ice cream making playdough maker thingy)

Speech Therapy - 9/5

Peanut continues to make astounding leaps and bounds in his speech. He is fixing his words well using mostly visual cues and his pacing card to help clarify words and sentences. He is delighted in how much more people understand him and so he spends a lot of his time telling and retelling stories.

Things we are working on this week:

-keeping prepositions in place. Peanut tends to drop the prepositions in a sentence knowing that he can be understood with nouns and verbs. We are using his pacing card to get those prepositions back in his sentences.

-who, what, where, why. Peanut continues to use voice inflection and body language to ask questions. We are working on using the words "what" and "where" and "why" because they are generic words that can be used often and will help him while in his school environment.

- getting the "t" sound and hard "c" sound at the beginning of the word. Table is bable and come is pronounced dumb. He can say it with the pacing card or if we break it down to two words so just giving him as much practice as we can so that his muscle memory will kick in.

We only have one more speech therapy session before school starts. This will bring some relief because I won't have to deflect and defend our precious speech time from an over-eager talking big brother but it also brings some anxiety about how Peanut will be in the classroom without me to interpret for him. We are hoping he continues to speak up and doesn't revert to silence in a new environment. Which ever way it goes, we will be there for our little hero.

Speech Therapy - 8/29

SLP -"Peanut, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to the park or go eat?"

Peanut - "Eat lunch!"

This is such a good example of how Peanut is changing. He is making two word sentences with words that aren't being optioned for him. And sometimes he will even throw a 3rd word in there just to impress us. It used to be that he would only put two words together that he was repeating directly after optioned but now he is taking the choices and words he hears and pulling out words that he knows to make his own statements. It is so awesome.

He sang Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle for his SLP and she was so impressed. They just played and talked for the hour and he was attentive and cooperative even though he is snotty today. His mood and concentration were where he needed to be to have a productive session.

We are still working with the pacing card and at the suggestion of the SLP I am going to see if I can make a leather bracelet that has three or four pacing squares on it so that he can use it whenever he needs it even if we don't have the card around. It really helps him to slow down his words and get them all out and clear. "iwannnannana" becomes " I want nana (banana)". The more he uses it, the better he gets.

His SLP continues to be impressed with the changes that have come over him in the last 3 weeks while on the HFCS-free diet and fish-oil supplements. I asked her if she really thought it was a big difference because I worry about the placebo affect and she pointed out that normally when he would make progress in one area, he would backtrack in another. He might get 4 new words but then lose 2 of the words he already had. This has been a different type of progress where it has been giant leaps forward without any sign of the backsliding we are used to.

We are working on putting together a word-book for him to use at school for people who aren't used to his pronunciations. We want him to be able to communicate well and without frustration as much as possible so giving him pictures to point to if people don't understand is one option for him. We will just have to wait and see if he needs it and uses it.

Pacing Card

We have started to try something new and it is exciting to be able to work with Peanut successfully on sentences instead of just words. When I ask him to say "Go to school" he will usually reply " Doe school" but yesterday he started saying "Go" with the hard g really well so I tried the sentence again and got "Go school". Then I pulled out the pacing card and pointed a black square for each word. "Go...To...School". Then tries it and points to a square for each word. As he does this he gets each word even if there is a pause between words. We did this for as long as he was interested. About 20 minutes later I asked him to say "Go to school" without the pacing card and he replied easily "Go to school". I only got all 3 words one time but I got it!! Success!

Here is what our pacing card looks like. Who knew that something so simple would be able to help him.

A World of Difference - Speech Therapy Session 8/22

Today's speech session was brilliant (at least for the first 40 minutes). Peanut showed off his new words, got pronunciations we have been working on for weeks and tried brand new words successfully at random and when he didn't get the right tongue position, he fixed it really quickly and on his own. His speech therapist kept looking at me with this expression that said "did you switch kids on me?". Last week, he used his speech therapists name for the first time ever but it took us the entire session to figure out that was what he was saying. He was calling her "ninny" for Christine and today when he was leaving he simply said "Bye Ninnine. See you".

The last 20 minutes was spent in a typical 2 year old shut down where he would only shake his head or answer no when we asked him to play. Then at the very end, he started reading his favorite book Pout Pout Fish with his SLP and he opened up again. It was fine although I hate to waste any time of the 60 minutes a week we get for his speech therapy.

Papa Bear and I were discussing his progress at dinner and we just really feel strongly that this awesome progress in just one week isn't random. It is either the increased fish oil supplement (we doubled his dosage) or the removal of the HFCS and other modified corn products or a combination of both. We are so excited and proud of our little Peanut.

I started reading a book called "What's Eating Your Child?" and it is really opening my eyes to a lot of things. These foods or lack of nutrition (fish oil) isn't what is causing his apraxia, but apraxia is a neurological issue. Keeping his brain clear of anything that isn't beneficial for growth and adding safe supplements that aid in brain development seem like a sure way to aid in his treatment.

Done, Gone and Now but no Milk for you

Peanut has added 3 very important words to his vocabulary, "gone", "done" and "now". The reason that these words are so important is because they are so generic and can really help him communicate what he needs and wants to other people. He uses them all the time and sounds like a little dictator with his new found vocabulary. "Wa Wa Now, Mama!" So we are encouraging his manners and making him add "please" but we are so secretly excited about his dictatorial ways that we don't really mind. After Papa Bear goes to work he marches around the house exclaiming "Papa gone." His "gone" does sound similar to "done" as he can't get the hard g sound at the beginning of words on a regular basis unless it is tapped out and segmented but it easy to know which he means based on the context of what he is saying. (easy for me anyway, I don't know about others).

He did lose a word/sound with all of this other progress. He used to say "milk" beautifully. But as he drove through our pretend McDonalds drive-thru on his bus ride-on toy he was all of a sudden requesting a "bulkbake" instead of a "milkshake". I tried but couldn't get him to use the "mmm" sound at the begining of the word even when segmenting it and tapping it out. I am going to bring this up at his next speech therapy session on Monday.

Peanut has been corn-free for about a week now. I have seen some progress in his speech but I think that we are facing a detox time because he has been cranky and whiney more than normal and is asking to take his nap earlier and earlier. I think that coming off of high-fructose corn syrup just took a toll on his sugar levels. We are sticking it out and thinking that even if it doesn't help his apraxia, it is healthier to not have the large amounts of high-fructose corn syrup that was in everything from his cereal, yogurt, maple syrup, ketchup etc.

August 15th - SLP

Peanut is having difficulty transitioning from nasal sounds to a closed soft palate sound and he is still having a lot of trouble starting words with tongue tip sounds. Top becomes bop and tap becomes bap. But if we "tap it out" by hitting our legs or the table to the different sounds he becomes much more adept at joining these sounds. So we are going to be tapping out just about everything that he can't say and my hope is that this will be something that his teacher can fall back on at pre-school if she doesn't understand what he is saying. Maybe asking him to "tap it out" will give her the sounds that she needs to piece together what he needs. We are also focusing on those generic statements like "I want" and "I need" and "One more" so that he can fall back on these when trying to talk to people who don't understand him.

Progress - he is putting so many two word sentences together on his own that we are really trying to push him to get 3 words now. He is very good and clear on the ritual sentences like "Night Night, love you Mama" 5 words that are clear and beautiful to my ears because they are part of his routine. We just have to get more and more words into his routine like this to help him grow.

Next up - working on "w" rounding sound in "want" and "whoops", keep "tapping it out" and get the "g" sound in "go" and "gone".

Homeopathic Visit

We had an opportunity to take Peanut to see a homeopathic pediatrician to see if she had any suggestions to help treat his apraxia or alternate ways to help his body. The jury is still out but she made some suggestions that even if it doesn't help him with the apraxia we recognize that they are changes we should make for health reasons anyway.

Her first suggestion is that we eliminate corn from his diet. I think she made this suggestion after seeing me hand him a fruit snack gummy treat to keep him happy during the 90 minute visit. (Again, I am a doubting Thomas and don't trust easily at all which is why my mind goes straight to this reasoning rather than her discerning this from any actual medical experience, homeopathic or not). But we do need to cut down on the amount of foods that have high fructose corn syrup in them. So we have started a food journal to see exactly how much corn (ie corn syrup) he is getting and then we will know where we need to start eliminating. I am not sure I am going to cut corn in the pure, true form but I will cut it out in any type of processed form ie corn meal, starch, syrup etc.

Her second suggestion was to add a probiotic to his system/diet and to increase the amount of the Omega 3's he is getting from his supplements. Those are also healthy and good for him suggestions and rather easy to implement. Again, these are also suggestions that I would give to any parent of an average, healthy child.

The third suggestion was to take 2 different homeopathic medicines, one for vaccines and one for his brain (corpus collosum). I don't know what is in these medicines and all I could gather from her is that they are homeopathic remedies (no kidding). So I am not going to give these to him for now. (doubting thomas and all of that).

I will try to give periodic updates on how we change his diet and how it affects him overall.

We are supposed to have a follow up visit in 5 weeks but the jury is out on if we will go back for a $100 visit that will last 30 minutes.

Another Perspective

Last night we had some good friends over to visit. They come to visit about every other month and spend some time with the kids before bedtime and then we get to have some good adult conversation after bedtime. They told us that they saw a huge difference in Peanut's ability to talk and for them to be able to understand him in just the two months since they had seen him last. It is a lot harder for us to see the subtle differences that happen each day because we are immersed in it. It was a balm to my heart and soul to hear this independent evaluation from our good friends.

July 29th - Roadblocks and Breakthroughs

Our speech therapy session was less about playing and more discussion between me and the therapist today. I feel that it almost more important that I get the knowledge that I need from our SLP to be able to continue work with him the other 167 hours of the week that he isn't learning from her. I had a lot of questions about the changes we are seeing and some minor roadblocks we are facing in his progress.

Roadblock #1 - Moving from 1 word to 2 word phrases:
Peanut's vocabulary is getting bigger by the day but there are still a lot of simple words that he just can't motor plan around. We are also seeing him struggle with a word that he has been saying perfectly if it is paired with a second word. He might be able to say "see" but when asked to say "see it" he loses the ability that he had previously shown. We are trying to find activities and games to help him through this roadblock.

Roadblock #2 - Stuck
Peanut seems to stick on his first word in a multiple word phrase until he can motor plan the following words. He might say " Mama mama mama mama mama book". I can see him get frustrated as this happens because he knows exactly what he is trying to convey but his mouth just isn't caught up to his brain. I think it is easing up a bit or at least the strength of the first word repeat has calmed down and he is using a gentle rocking of his body to aid in the motor-planning. He still gets stuck just as often, but it doesn't seem as violent of a reaction as it used to be. Or maybe I am just more used to it. I have been told this is common by other parents who have children with apraxia and that it will eventually fade. My fear for Peanut is that his frustration will make him go silent again instead of really trying to work through it.

Roadblock #3 - School
We are now 46 days before school starts and have to start getting down some key vocabulary. Words that he needs to say clearly so that other adults can understand him. The most important is his name, his teacher's name or something that he can call her, bathroom indictors since he is potty trained and signals for help. He has all of this vocab at home, but it is still in Peanut speak and we need it to be something that most adults could understand.

Breakthrough - I do think that he has an easier time learning words and getting words and phrases motor-planned when we are organizing other muscles but gross and fine motor. So we have been spending a lot of time using scissors, using play dough to strengthen and even sticker play. I love that he is gaining other age appropriate skills, organizing his muscles and aiding in his speech motor-planning.

We have switched his therapy sessions to Monday's in preparation for school which he will go to on Thursdays and Fridays so we will have another speech session in just a few days. I am hoping that he will get more play in the next session since I don't have as many questions for his SLP.

Peanut's Story

I don't know where to start telling Peanut's story so I will start around his time of diagnosis and go from there. At Peanut's 15 month well-baby visit I shared a concern with our pediatrician that started us down a path that has been filled with tears, frustration, excitement and triumph.

Peanut had lost his voice. He was silent. His ability to say mama, papa, and jaja (his name for his brother), all words he could say at 12 months, had vanished seemingly overnight. What was left was a frustrated little boy who was resorting to laying on the floor and banging his head or pounding his head on the wall in frustration. My pediatrician told me that if I was concerned then she was concerned and referred us to the Early Intervention (EI) program through our county.

Within 2 weeks I had his initial evaluation with EI and two weeks after that we had his extended 4 hour evaluation with 2 speech-language pathologists (SLP's) and and Occupational therapist (OT). They were very thorough an were even treated to a head-banging tantrum. I was told that my now 16 month old had the speech-language abilities of a typical 6 month old and the motor abilities of a 10 month old due to a motor-planning disorder most likely apraxia of speech.

"DISORDER???" Did you just tell me that my son has a disorder? No, can't you see that he is the most perfect, sweet, happy little boy? So right, maybe I had a knee-jerk reaction at first. I cried and felt like the vision I had for his future had just been erased with this diagnosis. That lasted for 2 days. On the third day of my self-induced pity party I was playing with all of my kids on the floor and heard the sound of Peanut's boisterous laughter at something his big brother was doing and I realized that his future is still wide-open. He didn't know he had a "disorder" and I would fight and work as hard as I could to help him find his voice and beat this diagnosis. So off we went to fight.

Peanut has been in weekly speech therapy and monthly occupational therapy for a year and he has come so far. He has over 75 words now and is putting two and sometimes 3 words together. It hasn't been easy and we have had a few set-backs but we are fighting and Peanut has a voice and is using his words to be heard. This blog will chronicle our help Peanut find his voice, serve as a way to document his progress and hopefully serve to help other parents out there helping their own children find their sweet voice tucked deep inside the mind of a child with apraxia of speech.