SLP Mommy of Apraxia

Category: Apraxia Awareness Day

  • Dot Articulation book GIVEAWAY

    Dot Articulation book GIVEAWAY

    Keeping up with our giveaways, next up is Dot Articulation from Speech Corner.  I use this book all the time with a variety of  different speech disorders.

    It’s a great way to get multiple productions in a fun and motivating format.  It has reproducible worksheets targeting 19 frequently articulated sounds, including blends.  For my kids with apraxia,  there are blank sheets in the book for you write in your own and then play with dot markers.

    Enter to win below and the winners will be notified on Apraxia Awareness Day on May 14th!

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  • Speech Racer app review and GIVEAWAY!!

    Speech Racer app review and GIVEAWAY!!

    Speech Racer is a relatively new app from Complete Speech.  I first tried this app at the ASHA convention in December.  I was amazed at how it utilized visual feedback based on the quality of a /r/ sound within various positions of words.  It can be used for both iPhone and iPad.

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    You can choose between four different meters that provide visual feedback on the accuracy of the /r/ sound.  I like this feature because after so many times with one meter, it’s like a new activity when we switch to another meter with the kids.

     

     

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    This one is the race track.  Kids hold their thumbs down on the sides until they complete the word and the app analyzes the production of the /r/ sound.  In settings, flashcards at the top have the choice to choose from various /r/ targets in all positions of words.  If you would prefer not to have flashcards, there is an option to turn it off.

     

     

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    The visual feedback is awesome!  In this picture, an /r/ was produced correctly and so the race track is lit up all the way to the finish line.  An engine rev noise is produced if the child scores all the way to the top.  We all know those kids who have an /r/ that isn’t totally wrong, but it’s not totally right either.  For those kids, the track would only light up in the yellow range.  Red, of course, means the child said the wrong sound.

    As you can see, their are scores at the bottom that track progress for data collection.

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    I bought this app at the convention, and actually asked THEM if I could do a review because I truly like this app that much.  It’s not always perfect depending on the child, but that is what I am there for!  The children I have used this with so far, really respond well to it!  They are motivated to keep trying the word over and over again moving their tongue in a different spot each time to really get that engine to rev to the finish line.  If they aren’t getting it, I provide some instruction or we just move on.

     

    I would recommend this app to SLP’s, but also to parents who have children practicing the /r/ sound at home.  It’s easy to use, and if you have a question, the staff at complete speech are very good to respond, problem solve, and answer questions via email.  Two codes will be given away for this app on apraxia awareness day, May 14th 2016, so make sure enter the giveaway below!

     

     

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  • Speech Stickers app review and GIVEAWAY

    Speech Stickers app review and GIVEAWAY

    May is Better Speech and Hearing Month, and The fourth Annual Apraxia Awareness Day is May 14th.  I’m offering giveaways on my blog that will be given away on May 14th!  First up is an app I literally use every week called Speech Stickers.

    Speech Stickers is the first app that I downloaded for Ashlynn (my daughter with apraxia) when she had first turned three.  I chose it because it was cheap, and said it was developed for children with apraxia.  The app is simple in design with not a lot of bells and whistles; however, my daughter loved practicing her speech with this app.

    The app is set up for kids in the very early stage of apraxia therapy.  The child can practice sounds in isolation and in CV(consonant-vowel) and VC(vowel-consonant) combos. The app is based around blocked practice with a lot of repetition that is necessary for apraxia therapy.

    After you pick your sound or sound combo, you can then decide how many times times the child has to say it before they get a “sticker” or a little animation as a reward.  Then, the child chooses between five characters on the bottom, all of which have a different pitch to their voice.  This is a bonus too, because children with apraxia have difficulty with “prosody” or the melody of speech.  The characters’ mouths model the correct placement.  The above picture is showing ‘m.’  Below the characters are modeling ‘mo.’ This is also great because it gives the kids a visual cue for the correct mouth posture.

    A scoring bar at the top help score and keep track of data. You must press the green check or the red x to move onto the next practice sound.  The app is designed so that the bar can also turn upside down so that the therapist can discreetly score; however, my daughter picked up on this in a heartbeat and would push the buttons haphazardly just so she could move on!    Once you reach the set number you earn a “sticker” or reward.  You can choose from eight stickers seen below:

    They are so simple, but my daughter loved them.  I chose the bus just so you can get an idea of the animation.

    It has been almost three years since I have used this app for Ashlynn, but the app lives on with all of my clients!  Kids of all ages and disabilities LOVE this app.

    I have a 5th grade boy with Down Syndrome who laughs every time he earns a sticker and watches the animation.

    I have a 3 year old who loves picking the alien because it reminds him of a popular TV show right now “The Octonauts!”

    I could go on!  Really, I can’t say enough about this app, and when I reached out to the creator Carol Fast MSPA, CCC-SLP I realized why this app is soo good.  Here are some comments from her:

    “It’s truly been a labor of love for me and I’m always gratified to find that other SLPs appreciate what we do. I’m glad that you found Speech Stickers to be helpful for your daughter and other students.  I work mostly with preschoolers and have found a special interest and passion in my little nonverbal CAS kids. I really love helping find their true voice. This is probably the most rewarding work I’ve done in over 30 years as an SLP.”

    Thank you Carol!  Thank you for your passion for working with kids who have CAS and for a great app that allows us to get a lot of repetitions of targeted syllable shapes in a fun and engaging way for the kids.

    To Enter: Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter.  Good luck!

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  • Let’s Link Up for Apraxia Awareness Day 2015

    Please feel free to add your link about any apraxia related blog post. Let’s Link-Up for CAS awareness!
    apraxia-link-up


  • Ignorance is bliss, but Awareness is POWER

    Ignorance is bliss, but Awareness is POWER

    Ignorance is bliss.  Yes, yes it is.  I can tell you this from personal experience.  If ignorance is bliss, what is hindsight?  Oh right, yes, I know.  Hindsight is 20/20, meaning looking at events afterward seem so much clearer than in the moment.  That much may be true.

    I was going through some old home movies.  Our 10 year wedding anniversary is coming up, and I guess I was feeling nostalgic.  Of course, there were other videos in the pack too.  A lot of Ashlynn, our first born.  Everyone always remarks how they had so much time to document everything with the first born, and Ashlynn was no exception.  I waited until she was 2:11 to get her evaluated, partly out of pride, partly out of denial, and partly out of a love greater than anything I had ever known.

    Tonight my husband and I watched a Christmas video we had rolling in December of 2010. Ashlynn would have been 1 year 2 months.  At the time, we are two young parents happy in love, and giddy with our baby.  Dear Lord she was perfect.  I remember that night.  Everything about her was perfect to me.  I remember a picture of her I posted on facebook, bow in her hair, wide eyed, wondrous, in front of our tree….and I had said “everything about this picture is beautiful to me.”

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    Looking back on it tonight, I see things I didn’t see before……I didn’t want to see before.  I see her flat head.  Yes I saw this before, but it was really noticeable.  I remember desperately trying to do tummy time with her, and her hating it, not being able to push herself up, and she felt like she was suffocating.  I tried everything to keep her off her head, but delayed gross motor milestones meant she was frequently on her back.

    My husband remarked on the silence.  If you were not looking at the video, you would have no idea a 1 year old is present.  Her silent voice was deafening to us now.  Especially since we went onto have a son, a VERY loud son.

    At 14 months, she was pulling herself up with the furniture, first starting on the top part of her foot and then rolling it to stand in position.  She was floppy.  She fell….. A LOT.  In fact, there was a bruise on her temple. “She’s just so little” my husband would say.  We didn’t see the apraxia then, glaring at us now.

    The video panned to a few later random events.  Each time her daddy would walk in  she would smile the biggest smile and give a shaky closed fist wave.  Back then we saw a a baby girl in love with her father….today we saw a baby with global apraxia.  I thought to myself though…oh how ignorance was bliss.  How we doted and awed at her.  She still was nothing short of perfect.

    We saw a video of her self-feeding scrambled eggs.  She would shove them in closefisted ( a delayed milestone we realize now).  She became red at one point, wide eyed, looking panicked.  In the video I playfully asked if she was pooping.  I had no idea.  As I sat watching, my husband said it for me….”she’s choking.”

    Yes, she was choking.  Gotta love that oral apraxia and the fact she never had an oral phase or chew to her swallow.  🙁

    I thought she was adorable though, and went on to praise her and tease her as only a mother could.

    She’s come so far.  Her re-eval revealed articulation skills in the low average range which is incredible.  With apraxia awareness day upon us, I shot a video of her.  Granted she was speaking on the spot with a script, but I always say the apraxia is almost resolved, and it is…I think.  But with this format, as I watched her, I saw every single diagnostic marker glare at me again as  I watched her sweet face on video.

    In fact, prosody, or the melody of speech is one thing I have always thought she was amazing at….but when asked to do a script, I saw….the slow pauses, inappropriate stress patterns, decreased intelligibility with longer phrases…….and I have to tell you it hits me like a ton of bricks.  My entire career now is based on working with kids with apraxia.  I know what I am looking for and I see these things on a daily basis.  Seeing them in my own child thought still has me blind….until I see her on video.

    My message this apraxia awareness day is to remember, every child is “fearfully and wonderfully made” in their mother’s eyes and ears, even if that eye and ear is now professionally trained to see and hear apraxia.  My message is that despite so many odds against her, I cannot help but believe the world for her.  That despite so many barriers, I cannot help but believe she will not knock those down too, like all the ones that have come before her.

    My message on this third annual apraxia awareness day is to tell you that every mother sees nothing but perfection in their child, and they need YOU…the SLP….the OT….the PT….the teacher…..to believe in them too.  They need you to know this because apraxia can be overcome.  It can….. but they need a dream team of therapists and teachers.  We NEED you.  We NEED you to know that frequent and intense therapy does and CAN make a difference, but we don’t want to have to fight you for it at every IEP.  We NEED you to realize it too.

    That’s why awareness is so important.

    Our children may have apraxia, but it DOESN’T have them….especially with your help.

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  • Word FLIPS giveaway!

    Day 5 leading up to Apraxia Awareness Day on May 14th has me offering a giveaway for Word FLIPS by Super Duper Publications.

    wordflipsWord FLIPS can be a useful and handy tool to use with kids who have apraxia.  It allows practice for simple CV syllable shapes for up to 3 repetitions.  It also allows for combining combos to form other bisyllabic words i.e. tie+knee = tiny.  I usually give my kids one of those finger pointers and we take turns pointing at and saying the words.

    Taken from their website:

    “Word FLIPS includes three sections of identical picture words with four tabs in each section that divide the words according to articulatory placement: Bilabial, Alveolar, Velar, and Palatal. Begin teaching severely unintelligible children by having them repeat identical earlier developing sounds, such as “boo-boo-boo.” Older or more verbal children can practice a variety of sequences, such as “tie-tea-shoe” as a warm-up to practicing sentences.

    Must be a U.S. resident.  Good luck!
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