Oh apraxia is a sneaky devil. For so long I prayed to just hear her sweet voice say what she wanted to say. At some point she started imitating really well. She didn’t really call out to me “mama” and she didn’t really offer up “I love you” but she could say it in imitation, and this was good. This was very good…because NOT hearing those words was devastating. I
What was it that Bill Cosby always said? Kids say the darndest things or something like that. Unless of course, you know, they don’t because they have apraxia of speech and can’t even say the most basic things. Or this that I just ran across: Unless of course, they don’t because they have Apraxia When Ashlynn was born, I wondered what her personality would be, the funny things she would
Ashlynn has been saying things lately that are really showing higher level thinking. You’d think this would be glaringly apparent to me, but it really IS crazy how much language gives us an idea of what is going on in their brain. She’s been VERY interested in her schedule, and where she is going the next day. I still haven’t made our visual schedule, but it’s on my to do
Ashlynn said her first “trick or treat” on command at the age of four. At three…she had an approximation, but then she froze when we went trick or treating. Many people were polite and kind, not demanding she say something for her candy. Others though, sat indignantly at the door waiting for “the magic words.” Because Ashlynn’s strengths lie in social skills, she was always able to charmingly muster up
Today I am honored to introduce Ruth Stoeckel, nationally recognized expert and published researcher on Childhood Apraxia of Speech. I first saw Ruth Stoeckel speak back in 2005 when she presented in Colorado. The packet she handed out during that talk helped me greatly in those early years when I was first learning about how therapy for apraxia is very different than therapy I had been doing for other speech
It’s been two years since Ashlynn was first identified as having CAS. She is now almost 5. At her first IEP meeting, I remember praying that she would talk. If she would just talk, everything would be okay. Last year, she was talking, but they explained she had a hard time fitting in with her peer group. She would tend to just repeat what others said, but she was at