Verbal Dyspraxia / Apraxia

[i_lovemykids]

Hi Star89,

How old was your son when he was diagnosed? My son is only 28 months but I suspect he may have verbal dyspraxia. He spoke late and currently still at mono syllables, and not able to combine two words. His speech is also not clear. I brought him to our doctor when he was 26 months and the doctor recommended speech therapy. My son has been seeing the speech therapist for the past 2 months. I also have been looking around for resources such as speech-enhancing DVD etc to help boost my son’s speech. He doesn’t have any official diagnosis yet, but I can see a marked delay in his speech compared to my two older kids.

[star89]

I brought my son for a proper diagnosis by speech therapy at 3.5 years old. His speech is improving now but still delayed if compare with peers around his age. I give him fish oil (brand Efalex) and it seems help alot on his face muscle coordination. Not sure whether can give before 3 years old, you have to check with the doctor first if you want to give.

[i_lovemykids]

Hi Star89,

I read about the fish oil supplement so I bought some for my son too, but not the Efalex brand. I think it’s the Childlife brand which can be given to 2 year olds. Only just started a week ago, hope that there will be some positive effect.
I have a friend whose son has dyspraxia and she said her son spoke in sentences at 5 years old. This was after a lot of therapy and placing him in a low ratio preschool setting. She said that she hasn’t come across many cases of dyspraxia in Singapore. So far this is the first thread on dyspraxia on this forum, I believe.

[star89]

There is a dyspraxia yahoo group but not active. I read in that group that his son can talk in sentence at 4.5 years old. Let us hope our son can talk in sentence soon.

[mignonne]

My son has verbal apraxia and GDD. Whenever I share about his conditions to parents who do not have kids with special needs, their first response are usually:


Is he ASD? Are you sure he is not??
Maybe he is just a late talker. He will be ok when he is older
You should try to talk to him more etc…

Not much is known about this condition.

Finding a suitable preschool for him is tough. His previous preschool principal asked us to withdraw him after a year with the school.
Waiting time for EIPIC is long. Furthermore there is limited subsidies for middle income family like us. We have to fork out a lot of money for private ST and OT and this is not subsidized. My kid’s CDA account is almost wiped out.

On one hand there is a lot of positive news from the government on providing more support for kids with special needs but on the other hand, our kids don’t have time to wait for all these resources to be built up. My son is already going to 5 yo. His development can’t wait. The "kiasu" education system waits for no one.

[simplycho]

hi everyone, i suspect my younger boy could have apraxia too… his speech is very much delayed as compared to his peers and his receptive language (understanding) is far more superior than his verbal… any reccomendations of speech therapists?


He is 25mths old now… recently he could manage only 2 word sentences like "mama night night" or "off switch" but cant say 2 different syllabus words like "apple" or "lemon"

I see a marked difference between him and my elser boy who was slower than his peers but still met milestones

[Roberta]

I have just convinced my daughter to have her son tested. His kindy (My First Skool) has been recommending that she get him tested, but she has been in a bit of denial. He is now two and a half, and can’t seem to pronounce anything properly. He understands everything and seems normal in other ways. Maybe a tendency to be a bit too tidy - but the kindy is encouraging this. He has a five and a half year old sister, and relies on her quite a bit to verbalize what he wants. The kindy is bilingual of course - not sure if that matters. I understand that it is very important to try to get a correct diagnosis before the age of three. It’s much more common in boys than girls. About 30% of kids do NOT grow out of it. My own son did, though he was not nearly as bad as my grandson.

[simplycho]

just to share about what our speech therapist shared with me… during my boy’s first visit to the speech therapist at 24-25mths old he was only occassionally able to say 2 syllabic words (very seldom) and while we wanted to test him for apraxia, we were told it is still very early to determine


she recommended that we speak to him in a different manner to echo his thoughts, to put his actions into words and i broke up 2 syllabic words like getting him to pronounce "le" then "mon" separately then slowly getting him to blend both sounds together
it kinda worked for him as he probably gain confidence and started to shorten the pauses between "le" and "mon"

after the 2nd review around 26mths he was slowly catching up speaking in sentences and we din need regular sessions

at 30mths now, he could speak longer sentences and pronounce words which have more syllabus like "umbrella" but he pronounces it as "um-bell-ra" mixing /l and /r sounds etc and does omit certain sounds as a cluster like "airplane" when he meant "aeroplane" in a hurry

hopefully he’ll slowly get them sorted out but i do find it helpful in "dividing n conquer" strategy (to break up the syllabus) for him

[poohhunny]

Hello,


May i know which speech therapist do you recommend? My boy is 2 months short of 3 years old but only has less than 10 words he can pronounce properly. His vocab is increasing by the day but we cannot understand his pronounciation unless he gestures them. Suspect him to have apraxia too but he is perfectly fine in comprehending and playing with other kids. Kindly assist

[lee_yl]

poohhunny:

Hello,


May i know which speech therapist do you recommend? My boy is 2 months short of 3 years old but only has less than 10 words he can pronounce properly. His vocab is increasing by the day but we cannot understand his pronounciation unless he gestures them. Suspect him to have apraxia too but he is perfectly fine in comprehending and playing with other kids. Kindly assist

I suggest you send your boy for an assessment and if need be, early intervention. I will PM you the contact of a speech therapist shortly.