VERBAL APRAXIA



We live in a talking world. Almost everything we do in society is governed by our ability to communicate with each other. Learning to talk is one of the hardest things for a child to do, and takes several years to accomplish.

Now, imagine knowing EXACTLY what you want to say, and yet, no matter how hard you try, your mouth will not open and properly form those words in a coherent way. Can you just imagine how frustrating that can be? Just simply asking for something to eat or drink can become an ordeal.

Children with Verbal Apraxia, also known as Verbal Dypraxia, live with this frustration every day, everytime they want to speak. Because of this inability to form words properly, some school age children with this disorder struggle just to learn how to read and spell. This affects other areas of their schooling because most other subjects are learned through reading.

Verbal Apraxia is a neurologically based motor planning disorder. The message from the brain to the muscles that are used to speak gets scrambled, and the muscles don't know how to decode that message, resulting in the child not being able to speak properly. But with proper therapy with an experienced speech language pathologist (SLP), the muscles can be trained to form the words properly.

The reason I have decided to create a webpage about Verbal Apraxia is because my son, who turned 2 years old in March, has been showing signs of Verbal Apraxia. I feel that if more educators, parents, doctors, etc., know and understand Verbal Apraxia, and how it affects both the child and the parents, steps can be made to help smooth the road ahead for both my son and any other children with this disorder, and the parents. These children have a long, hard, road ahead of them, and ANYTHING that we as adults can do to help make it easier for them is, in my opinion, worth every effort that we can possibly make.



Some signs that a child may have Verbal Apraxia are:



  • Little or no babbling as infant.
  • Very few consonant sounds.
  • Understanding of language far exceeds ability to express themselves.
  • May have had feeding problems in infancy.
  • Uses grunts or gestures or some non-verbal way to communicate.
  • Leaves off the end or beginning of words. ie: "mo" for "more"
  • Often inconsistent or unpredictable speech errors. ie: may say a word perfectly one time, then not be able to say it again.
  • The longer the word, the more errors that are made.
  • Struggles or shows signs of frustration with their inability to communicate.
  • Makes slow progress in speech therapy.
  • Hard to understand.


    • If you feel that your child, student, patient, etc., may have a speech disorder, make arrangements for them to be evaluated. The earlier they get the therapy they need the easier it will be for them.
  • For children 3 and under, contact your states Birth to Three program. May also be called First steps, or something along those lines.
  • For children between 3-5 years of age, contact your local preschool, or the Special Ed. Department of your local school district.
  • For children 5 years of age or older, contact the Special Ed. Department at your local school district.




    • LINKS


  • Apraxia-kids
  • LD Online
  • Dyspraxia Information Sheet
  • Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia
  • Talored Marketing
  • University of Sydney, Australia- Dyspraxia Links



    The Apraxia-kids website also offers a listserv support group that you can join to find information and support from parents and SLP'S around the world. To subscribe to the Apraxia-Kids list :
    Send an email message to:listserv@listserv.syr.edu
    in the message portion type: subscribe apraxia-kids

    I have also created a support group at Onelist. For those of you who don't have the time to recieve a lot of email messages. It is open to any parents with children who have speech needs, any Speech therapist or Educators who deal with these children. Just send an email here: POKSN-subscribe@onelist.com Or you can email me and let me know that you are interested.


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