SLP Mommy of Apraxia

Tag: Apraxia

Speech Stickers App for Apraxia Giveaway!

I’m keeping up the momentum now until May 14th, offering giveaways and prizes in honor of Apraxia Awareness Day!

Next up is the app 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

May 1, 2015
Kaufman DVD and Treatment Kit 1 Giveaway!

Today is May 1st, which marks the beginning of better speech and hearing month! More importantly though, the Third Annual Apraxia Awareness Day is May 14!

To celebrate, I’m offering giveaways all month for apraxia related products. First up are the immensely popular Kaufman DVD and Instructional Kit 1 COMBO.

This kit was honestly instrumental in helping my daughter cross the bridge from being a nonverbal, ineffective imitator, to becoming a verbal speaking child. She did this kit for 9 months until she burned out on it.

Though my therapy style is based more off of DTTC, I certainly use this kit as a tool for therapy with my own clients. Many times, parents have borrowed my set and worked on it at home with their children for homework.

This is a $228.00 value!

I can’t thank Nancy enough for her generosity in offering this COMBO pack for the giveaway, and especially including the instructional DVD, which is so helpful to see how Nancy uses these cards herself.

How to Enter: Enter using the rafflecopter widget below. Must be a U.S. resident and 18 or older. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

April 30, 2015
Am I the only one?

“Lord woman. We need a jet airplane, a case of wine, and a few days to ourselves. We are living parallel lives.”

I received this text today from a mom I have never met, but who I feel I must have known my entire life. I found her through the marvel and wonder of the internet, and in only a year’s time, I feel I know her life story….not because she has told me, but because she too has a child with global apraxia and sensory processing disorder. He is Ashlynn’s age, and each time I write a blog post, somewhere in Oklahoma, more times than not, a young six year old boy and his mother are going through the same things we are.

The experiences range from the emotional joy of seeing them pedal for the first time wearing their smiles of pure joy while tears of joy run down ours……. to the mundane task of cracking an egg perfectly for the first time.

Whatever it has been…struggling to write their name, being pegged as cognitively deficient, or being the best charmer this side of the Mississippi; our children, and now us, their mothers, are truly kindred souls.

Literally while I was in the midst of emailing Ashlynn’s OT explaining I want the sensory profile in her IEP on Friday to give a full picture of her attention issues and not just ADD, I receive this text from my Oklahoma friend:

“How is Ashlynn’s attention span?”

I knew immediately she meant her son’s sucks and she was looking to see if it was the same for Ashlynnn. I know she didn’t say that, but I knew before she said it that that’s where it was going.

I actually feel blessed for these moments. In these moments when God seems to whisper, “you can do this. You are not alone. I am here for you.”

Sometimes it comes out of nowhere. Again through the marvels of the internet, I know another mommy to a child who has global apraxia, and this mommy is also an SLP! Global apraxia is so rare, but it doesn’t seem that way when I have others to talk to. Others sharing my exact same experience. Somehow she always knows just what to say. Sometimes, it’s just APRAXIA SUCKS, and it means so much more coming from her. She just *gets* me.

I love this quote.

I don’t care that I haven’t actually met either of these women face to face and I don’t care if people think I’m crazy. Truth is, I already know them and they already know me, in a deeper way than some who see me face to face ever will….

And one day there will be a jet airplane and a case of wine. I look forward to it. Until then….

April 21, 2015
Pot O’Gold Articulation Game for Apraxia

I was finally able to make a new game for my kiddos with enough time to spare for St. Patrick’s Day! This game follows the same idea as my other repetitive games. Kids have a game board, in this case, a black pot:

The kids draw a card from the card deck. If the card contains a shamrock with gold coins, the child collects the amount of coins shown and then practices their targeted speech sound/syllable that amount of times.

Some cards have surprise twists that include “snatching coins from other players,” losing a turn, or giving some of their coins to other players.

The player with the most coins at the end wins the game! My kids really enjoy these games and I hope kids on your caseload do too! Enjoy! Get it in my teachers pay teachers store for free for a short time!

February 25, 2015
Accuracy of IQ scores with global apraxia

Cognitive testing, psychological evaluation, IQ, psychologist, neuropsychologist. What do all these have in common? What do they have to do with a child who has a speech delay? What does it matter?

Tests of intelligence, commonly referred to as “cognitive” testing in the schools, are standardized measures usually administered to children as part of a complete battery of testing a child will receive when being considered for special education services (including just speech).

Ashlynn never had a cognitive test administered when she was first found eligible for special education services because she was so young. She is now five, and it is her three year review. As part of the battery of assessments, the school district is really pushing for a cognitive assessment. I’ve been hesitant for multiple reasons. This article on apraxia-kids.org Special Considerations for Psychological/Educational of Children with No Speech or Unintelligible Speech sums up my main fear.

“The first thing to keep in mind when testing children with significant speech delays is that most standardized tests of intelligence will either be inappropriate or of questionable validity.”

Apraxia of Speech definitely fits the bill in the definition of “significant speech delay.” In the schools, at least in the districts I have worked in for the past ten years, the test of choice remains the WISC (Weshler Intelligence Scale for Children) and the WPSII (Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence). These tests are great and provide a lot of information about how children learn. However, as the article points out, they would “at best, provide a crude comparison of a child’s ability in certain areas.” I would also add, that if a child has GLOBAL APRAXIA, meaning motor planning issues effecting the entire body, they are at even MORE of a disadvantage. There are visual scanning and visual motor components that will obviously come out low if the child is still in OT working to improve these skills. There are fine motor and pencil/paper tasks that will also come out low if the child is still working to improve these motor skills. To be blunt, I don’t think they are many subtests that could be validly assessed when a child is globally impacted. Which leads to my second fear that again this article sums up nicely,

“The second consideration (and most important), is that these types of tests should never be used to make predictions about a severely language impaired child’s eventual functioning.”

I want to laugh, and this is really NOT funny. I want to laugh because unfortunately this DOES happen ALL the time in the schools. It’s sad to say but I hear this statement quite frequently, “Well, he’s performing to his potential.”

Yep friends. It’s not like I’ve heard this once. I’ve heard this so, so, soooooo many times over my career.

Now, it’s not all bad. If the cognitive assessment is an accurate reflection of the child’s abilities, then it is important that we are not pushing a child to do something that they just cannot do. It’s not fair to the child. It causes stress, it makes them feel stupid, and many times they feel like failures. Accepting a child where they are at is important.

However, if the score is inaccurate, this is also not fair to the child. That is why these types of tests should never be used to make predictions about the child’s eventual functioning……but as I’ve just explained, they are, more frequently than not, at least in my experience.

So, what do we DO about this? Well that certainly has been my dilemma as of late. I can tell you what I am doing. If the school pushes to test, then I will talk to the psychologist and make sure a nonverbal test of intelligence is administered. I do not want a test that has a verbal section. Period.

I am going to take Ashlynn to a neuropsychologist for testing. A school psychologist is trained and qualified to assess cognition, but they do not have the advanced training in neuropsychological and cognitive testing that a neuropsychologist does. Why is this important? Well, I personally think a psychologist with more advanced training in neurological disorders and subsequent testing will yield more accurate results.

Lastly, I’m still going to be Ashlynn’s biggest fan, the one who has her back, and the one in her corner. I know her potential and I’m going to make sure she always knows it too.

February 17, 2015
I need to remember they are my sunshine, when skies are gray.

I always say they aren’t any easy answers, only tough choices in this game of parenting. Sometimes, I think I know too much. The special education teacher approached me yesterday about placement for Ashlynn going into Kindergarten. Her attention is such a problem. It could be related to the apraxia and sensory processing disorder, or it could be something else. Who the hell knows. I know she was giving me professional courtesy by asking what I thought would be best, but I have no professionalism when it comes to my children. I’m their mama, plain and simple. It is just tooo hard to be both.

I could tell this woman was clearly hinting toward a program called ILC. It basically means a more restrictive special education programming where Ashlynn would have a teacher’s aid assigned to her, but it would be integrated full time into the Kindergarten classroom FML. Decisions, decisions.

I don’t want her to have that “label.” Yes I know, I’m an SLP and I work with those labels everyday and yes, I love each and everyone of those kids.

I also know this. I know that this past week my colleague was working with a high functioning kiddo with ASD, also in “ILC.” He is also mostly mainstreamed in regular education, holding his own. The class was doing a compare/contrast assignment on characters in a story. He did an amazing bubble map and flow chart and compared the characters, even comparing their feelings. When he went back to class, the SLP had him share his work, including the great insight on the character feelings. The teacher responded, “oh, well he could have just said one was a boy and one was a girl.” I’m sorry, but I had to wonder, was it because this boy was in ILC? He had come up with something way more abstract than just one was a boy and one was a girl…but whatever.

I had pretty much already decided last night Ashlynn wasn’t a fit for ILC. I mean sure, extra teacher support would benefit her greatly, but she can do this. Don’t underestimate her. Oh, and may I mention I came to that decision easily (meaning tears).

Then today happened. The one day I’m not at my daughter’s school, I come home to find out my daughter “ran away” at recess, and no one found her until they did a head count. She was still on school grounds “collecting rocks in a bucket with a friend” when they found her.

So….is this the wake up call I need to admit my daughter needs this special programming? If she had a teacher’s assistant, she would never be out of someone’s sight. Ugh. I hate this!!!

Oh, and did I mention the social worker reminded me I still hadn’t filled out the “the Vanderbilt.” For those of you that don’t know, that’s a test for ADHD. Again, FML. All these decisions are freaking overwhelming.

Then, as I was going home, my mother-in-law who watches my kids told me that Ashlynn, exasperated over something today exclaimed, “bummer!!” When asked who said that, she matter of factly told her, “my mommy.”

Smiles

Oh, and Jace sang “You are My Sunshine” all the way through today. Yep, he learned that from me. I sing it to them every night.

And I remembered. That is what life is about. Not the special programming, the teacher’s aid, the ADHD test, the “running away and, and, and…….

Life is about my rays of sunshine. Everytime. Everywhere. Always. No matter what. I wouldn’t trade it.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine(s) away.

February 5, 2015