| You know your child's speech has not been | | | | string together two and three word sentences. |
| developing normally. After taking him to his | | | | In a 3 - 4 year old child who has entered the |
| physician, you were referred to see a Speech | | | | talking stage, inconsistency is probably the best |
| and Language Pathologist. They have now labeled | | | | characteristic of his speech. Words will not come |
| your child as apraxic. For some that may seem | | | | out the same way. There may be good and poor |
| like a big relief, you finally know what's wrong and | | | | productions of the same word. Word |
| it's not something worse. For others it may cause | | | | approximations are very common. You have to |
| fear - will my child ever speak normally? | | | | guess what your child is trying to say. At age 3 |
| What is Apraxia? | | | | my daughter had about thirty word |
| Apraxia involves the inability to carry out | | | | approximations. An approximation is a partial |
| purposeful speech movements consistently. The | | | | word, often dropping the beginning or ending of |
| child with verbal apraxia cannot move the lips, the | | | | the word. For example she said "ju" for juice, |
| tongue, and the jaw in the right sequence to | | | | "bay" for baby and "Whee" for her sister Whitney. |
| correctly produce syllables, words and phrases. | | | | With proper intervention there is no reason why |
| Generally, the longer the word or phrase, the | | | | your child will not develop normal speech. A plan |
| harder it becomes. | | | | and treatment goals will be discussed with your |
| A very young child, such as my daughter at age | | | | child's speech therapist. Speech therapy can be |
| 2 may only have one or two words or sounds | | | | very intensive for a young child. In addition to |
| that they use for everything. She consistently | | | | speech therapy there are many other things you |
| said "hi". Other children may use a sound such as | | | | can do to enhance your child's speech. My |
| "ba" or "da" for all words. A child at age two, | | | | daughter experienced a very rapid recovery and |
| should have a vocabulary of 50 words and able to | | | | by age six was speaking normally. |