FAO Andrea

Hi,

You mentioned you have two special needs kids, one with Aspergers and one
with apraxia. If I can be so nosy as to ask how old the child with apraxia
is and if he/she is talking? My nephew is 2 1/2 and still not talking--he
is in speech and occupational therapy--but his therapists mentioned possible
apraxia. They also said autism and apraxia and aspergers, for that matter,
go hand in hand(sensory issues, oral fixation, etc.) Can you enlighten me
as to the differences between aspergers and apraxia? They tend to think he
is autistic but do not formally diagnose until 3yo. Anything you can share
would be greatly appreciated.

TIA, Robin

"jake's mom" wrote in message...

Hi,

You mentioned you have two special needs kids, one with Aspergers and one
with apraxia. If I can be so nosy as to ask how old the child with
apraxia
is and if he/she is talking? My nephew is 2 1/2 and still not talking--he
is in speech and occupational therapy--but his therapists mentioned
possible
apraxia. They also said autism and apraxia and aspergers, for that
matter,
go hand in hand(sensory issues, oral fixation, etc.) Can you enlighten me
as to the differences between aspergers and apraxia? They tend to think
he
is autistic but do not formally diagnose until 3yo. Anything you can
share
would be greatly appreciated.

TIA, Robin

Hi Robin,

My son Alden who had Apraxia (also known as verbal dyspraxia), is 4. He felt
different to me as a baby. He didn't coo or babble, he sat/crawled/walked
late, and was developmentally delayed. He only began talking age 3. He had
no understanding. (If I asked him to pass me something he had no idea what
was being said).
He is going to see an occupational therapist soon, as he gets frightened
over certain noises/situations. (We are worried about aspergers).
Progress is slow, but his understanding is now 100% (2 years ago he had
none), and he now attempts to talk jut like any 4 year old. Apraxia makes
the muscles of the mouth not move as they should so the sounds are
disorganized. It's a malfunction between the brain messages and the mouth
muscles. There are varying severities of Apraxia. You are right about other
things such as Autism being connected, it is very rare to just have pure
apraxia of speech without some other problem along with it.

Here is a great message board called Apraxia kids;

http://www.apraxia-kids.org/msgboards/index.html

you will find lots of parents there new to the diagnosis.

Here is another useful link;

http://www.apraxia-kids.org/indexes/indexhelp.html

about what apraxia is.

My other son Peter age 7 has Aspergers. This is a milder form of autism. He
finds it hard to maintain friendships, and is very much on his own agenda.
He soils/wets himself, and has to have someone take him to the toilet at
school as he is terrified of the sound of the toilet flushing. (sensory
overload).
He 'stims' (self-stimulates) by flapping, and jumping up and down. He is
hyper, and is obsessive about things and routine. He is unaware of the other
persons feelings, he runs up to strangers and hugs and kisses them.
He has no friends because he wants them to do it all his way or forget it.
His handwriting is a shambles, and he has no ball skills. He gets upset
because he can't play football like other boys.
I could go on and on LOL, so here is a link;

http://www.autism.org/asperger.html

With both boys there is a lot of anger and frustration. But I wouldn't
change them for the world.

feel free to email me with any questions andrea22_uk at hotmail.com

Andrea.

Hi Andrea,

Thank you so much for all of the information--I'm going to forward it to my
sister also. She is having a hard time right now because he has been in
therapy since August with no speech developments--he is also regressing in
therapy sessions--having to be restrained because he does not get his way
and won't do the tasks at hand. I'm just now getting a chance to read the
links you sent but I wanted to thank you for taking the time to send them
and offering your e-mail if I have questions.

Thanks again, Robin