SLP Mommy of Apraxia

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Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick Speech/Language Activity Pack

This is a little late, but I see private clients on Saturday and I needed an activity to go along with the book “There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick,” by Lucille Colandro. As you probably know, I usually incorporate repetitive books into therapy as a way to provide vocabulary in context, but to also have the kids participate by having a part in the book to practice language and/or speech targets.

I start with story cards while I’m telling the story:

Afterward, I have a sequencing grid place the pictures in order and work on various concepts such as first, next, last or before/after; or to aid in a story retell.

I included two separate following directions activities for the kids who need additional work with receptive language:

Sentence stem pages for subject pronoun and has/have agreement: she (pictured), he, and they

Finally a blown up picture of the “Old Lady” to place on a manila envelope or cereal box and have students “feed” her the story cards. We usually practice saying “She at the…..”

To get this activity, visit my TpT store: SLPMommyofApraxia TpT store

April 3, 2015
Success WAS there, and we will revel in it.

Exactly 18 months ago, I wrote one of my favorite and initially most popular posts: Lessons from a Tricycle.

At that time, Ashlynn was close to 4 and still could not pedal a tricycle. I describe how we bought it a couple months before her third birthday when I was pregnant with my son. A year later, I wrote that post and explained that she STILL wasn’t able to ride it. When one has motor planning difficulties, the steps involved in riding a tricycle become glaring.

Core strength
Bilateral coordination
Vestibular and propriocepive systems
Balance
Strength
Endurance

Who knew one needs ALL of the above to do a simple childhood rite of passage like ride a tricycle. In that blogpost, I described “arched back and frazzled patience.” My back hurt every time I tried to teach her how to ride. I would lean over and pull or push her, while she struggled just to keep her feet on straight. I wondered time and time again, will she ever actually get this down? Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it was to have her “walk” her trike back home?? I knew deep inside though she would get it one day. I wrote,

“Success will surely be there, waiting more patiently than me.”

After having my son, I realize how easy people have it. I didn’t teach my son anything. I gave him his big wheel and said “have fun.” I didn’t have to teach him how to keep his feet on the pedals. He just did it. I didn’t have to remind him that while he was pedaling he had to look up and pay attention because he was going to fall off the curb. He just did it, and I’m so proud of him. He loves flying down the street on his big wheel shouting “faster! FASTER!!”

I remember my husband posting enthusiastically when Ashlynn had actually purposefully and independently pushed the pedal forward herself and propelled herself for at least two rotations. We were so sure she had arrived. That was it right? She got it down, right?

No, no it wasn’t. The motor plan wasn’t quite carved out enough in her brain. At least, that’s how I imagine it. I imagine pathways in her brain as a ski slope full of thick powder. Every motor activity requires her to carve a path herself to the bottom. It’s hard. It’s tiring, and when she gets back up the hill to try again, she may swerve off track and be forced to try again.

Once the motor plan is mapped though? Oh boy. Then it’s like the groomed hill, wide and easier to maneuver. I dare say we are beginning to revel in the groomed slopes.

She rode her trike around the block tonight. As I watched her in front of me, the sun was setting, and there she was….laughing, smiling, turning the handlebars when she was in danger of veering off the curb, and going as fast as she could and then stretching her legs out in front of her to feel the wind on her face. This to me is childhood.. This to me is what apraxia had robbed from her for so long. As I watched her, hair blowing carefree in the wind, the setting sun once again caught my gaze….and I realized, the sun was setting on a chapter in her life. There it was….success…just as I predicted, waiting more patiently and more beautifully than I ever could have imagined.

Here’s the video if you’re interested. Warning: She’s so far ahead, she’s hard to see 🙂

March 23, 2015
Global apraxia, you brought your “A game,” but my daughter’s game is better.

My friend introduced me to an AWESOME website call “The Mighty.” During the month of March, they challenged readers to write an open letter to a disability that a loved one faces. I have no idea if I’ll get accepted, but hey, at least I have a blog. For as much writing I do about apraxia, it was definitely high time to talk to apraxia myself.

Hello apraxia. Hello global apraxia. It’s hard to believe we’ve never talked, especially since I’ve certainly done my fair share of talking about you. When I gazed into my new baby girl’s eyes, and laughed along happily to her hearty giggles, I had no idea then that you were there, lurking in the shadows.

The day I discovered you were behind the delayed motor milestones and the lack of speech I cried heavy tears and felt a weight I don’t think I quite have shaken yet. You certainly brought your “A game” global apraxia. I hate to admit I have felt defeated by you before. However, you never managed to crush a small little girl’s determination, attitude, resilience and perseverence. We are told you will never go away. Anything requiring a motor plan will always take “more repetition than most.” Oh how many times have we heard that? I hated you once. I hated watching my baby girl struggle to: speak, to jump, to ride her bike, to drink without choking. In fact I still hate you as I continue to see her struggle to: dress herself, feed herself, and write her name. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever quite forgive you when I think about the day she almost drowned.

Mostly though, I feel sorry for you. You have no more power here in this house, because my little girl has shown she can beat you time and time again. She is a hero who wins daily, weekly, and monthly battles, and that winning is something you will never know. Bet you didn’t expect something so strong to come out of something so small did you? Well, we actually have that in common. My daughter’s bravery took me by surprise too.

You will never know winning here, but because of your stubborness, we only grow stronger and more confident, knowing that any obstacle in our way can be defeated with faith, tenacity, and an unrelenting positive attitude.

March 19, 2015
The day the page went blank.

I can’t remember a time since I learned to write that I stopped writing. I was the girl with diaries, journals, writing pads, and notebooks filled with writing. Obviously now, I continue to write. There was a time though my writing was noticeably absent. I recently scoured my notebooks and old blogs searching for what I wrote around the time of Ashlynn’s diagnosis and came up empty. I had many poems celebrating her birth and first year. One of my last poems was this:

Angel

They told me me you were my baby girl
as you cried hello to us.
I believed them at the time
admist the chaos and the fuss.

They told me you were my baby girl
and when I took you home,
I would gaze upon the sweetest face
I had every yet to know.

They told me you were my baby girl
and I would gaze at you at night.
I would watch your lips
flash smiles radiant and bright.

They told me you were my baby girl
and I have so many flaws;
and you are perfect in every way,
they must have got it wrong.

They told me your were my baby girl
and my baby girl you will always be,
but I know the truth and the truth is,
God sent an Angel to me.

I stopped writing shortly after this. This was the time during her diagnosis. I didn’t start again until a year later when I started this blog.

I guess I could brush it off and say I was simply too busy. After all, I WAS working full time and then coming home each night to continue speech therapy with her.

That’s a lie though. As I’m three years out now and I’m meeting parents who are new to the dx, I realize the devastation and the heaviness was to much for me to even write. To WRITE. My outlet, my creative platform, my emotional release. I wanted to hide it all and be strong. I had to push forward, but as my friend Kim has said, there is always an underlying sadness threatening to break way at unexpected times. A mix of guilt, pain, and desperation to help your child that can only be released through tears. Tears I fought back.

As I met a mom last Saturday, she broke down three different times. She seemed embarrassed to say she hand’t told anyone her son has apraxia because she doesn’t want him labeled. I totally understood what she was saying. If you read my poem, I would suspect it’s pretty universal. We see perfection in our child and our children, and a label means other people see something less than perfect. It is very painful, because despite any imperfections, in a mother’s eyes, our children were “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14

I’m glad I started writing again in 2012.

My story, OUR story, has been one of success and triumphs. Yes it is still of struggle, but through the struggles emerge victories, however small. Yes there is still pain. Gut punches from reading reports in black and white, but there is also progress and celebrations I might have taken for granted. There are now friends I never would have met, people I never would have known, and admiration for a little five year old girl that might have never been as great. If you talk to any mother who has a child with apraxia, they will no doubt agree that child is their

Hero.

March 16, 2015
St. Patrick’s Day Subject pronoun has/have verb agreement freebie!

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, I whipped up a subject pronoun has/have verb agreement activity that the kids love! Laminate, or just print and glue, all my little kids love it, and you’ll love it too, because it’s free!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

March 10, 2015
Instant connections aren’t a coincidence

There have been times in my career that I have instantly connected with kids I first meet. Usually, time is spent building trust and rapport, which would be expected really. However, there are rare times when the connection is instantaneous.

The first time this happened to me was with a Kindergarten boy who had apraxia. He was nonverbal, anxious, and highly sensitive. I had just come off of maternity leave, and my substitute SLP described him as not having a desire to communicate, but otherwise, she just couldn’t figure him out.

When I walked into his classroom, he hugged me like he had known me our entire life. I will never forget it, especially since I discovered he was not this way with ANYONE. I felt special, and I vowed to make him feel special too. I documented that experience in my blog post Instant Connection with Ben.

Yesterday I met a new client who is almost 3 1/2. I’ll call him Joe. Joe was described in the case history as friendly and social, but I was certainly surprised when I went out to meet him and he jumped into my arms. His mom was surprised too, wondering who I maybe looked like that he knew. Yesterday was just the initial evaluation, so I couldn’t really interact playfully with him as much as I would have liked.

However, it made me think of Ben. I left for another school after two years of working with Ben. When I left, he was talking with his peers in mostly simple and some complex sentences. He had found his voice, and I knew he would be okay. It was still hard to leave him, and his brown eyes looked so sad and worried when I told him he would have a new speech teacher. His parents wrote the letter that helped me get into the Apraxia Intensive Training Institute. It was a handwritten, heartfelt letter in Spanish, and they were so worried that it wasn’t good enough. I was so excited to tell them I had gotten in. I always say apraxia is a journey, but it’s also a journey for the treating SLP. We become so invested, and we frequently don’t get to see the end result.

So here I start on a new journey with my new instant connection. I believe instant connections happen for a reason, and I don’t plan on letting Joe down either.

March 8, 2015