OT

Nate working on reading numbers during OT.  He is walking around the room reading numbers 0-30 out of order while another OT student is on a swing working on coordination.  I love how his OT is incorporating physical activity into his academic work.

Working Hard

Here are some short clips of Nate working on speaking and reading in complete sentences.  He still struggles with correct use of articles.  Since CAS is a motor planning disorder once his mouth gets going he starts to say things from rote memory (which you can see in this video) when he is creating a sentence about 5 shovels.  He has practiced saying "I see the" or "I see a" so much that when he needs to say something else, it's difficult.  The SLP here uses cards with words or sometimes just dots on a page to represent the individual words.  Since we are working on improving his reading and number identification skills he has been doing more work with print.

(These videos were done in October)

Basketball, Butterfly & A Lizard

Nate's been busy--between school and therapy sessions.  I think because of his great disposition, he's able to handle his schedule in stride!  Here are a couple of short clips from a therapy session this week.

In this first clip he is working on multi-syllabic words.  In order to get him to slow down an annunciate, his therapist uses colored chips to represent each syllable.  Here he's saying the word "watermelon".

Here's "basketball" and "butterfly".  Notice how he zooms through butterfly and says "bu-ter-fy".

In this last clip, he is using the colored chips to represent individual words in the sentence "The lizard is looking for food."  He is still working on verb tenses, so you'll hear him leave of -ing in looking.

16 Months

For quite some time I've been wanting to post some video of where Nate started and where he is now.  Nate has been receiving speech therapy since his 3rd birthday, about 18 months ago.  In May of 2010 I posted a few videos of words or skills he was working on, like book, tree, the s-sound, and mom.

Here's Book:

And Mom:

And here's Nate 16 months later-

At breakfast:

Practicing his words:

And a bedtime story:

He is blossoming in his Montessori class and is becoming more involved in group activities.  He has friends whom he enjoys working and playing with and is more comfortable in asking for help.  He is also attempting to respond more to questions verbally.  He has a long way to go, but the videos help remind me of where he's come from.

Slow but steady...

Today one of Nate's SLPs wrote in his binder (which follows him everywhere), that he is making notable progress.  This is very exciting!  He is spontaneously using more word approximations and signs.  Just tonight at dinner, he noticed I took his fork and he said "ork"!  Lots of new approximations and word attempts.

I have an updated video demonstrating some of the words that he is able to do very clearly and others he still has trouble with.

We've been practicing showing numbers with his fingers and he's getting pretty good at it now.  It had been difficult for him due to some slight global apraxia issues.  He literally use to have to use one hand to hold down the fingers on his other hand in order to demonstrate the right number.

In my last post I spoke about the Kaufman cards and how these cards are used in the treatment of apraxia.  It got me looking around on-line and although expensive, I was able to find a set for sale on ebay at a reduced price.  We have been practicing them at home and Nate is excited to be using something he sees in therapy.

In July, he Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America is having their annual conference in San Diego.  It looks like there's going to be some great presentations, ranging from:  A Map for Caregivers Unraveling the Mystery of Treatment, Using Symbolic Gestures to Facilitate Speech Motor Planning and Literacy Development, and AAC and Apraxia: Perspectives from a Parent, a Teacher and an SLP.  (AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, which can be anything from pictures in books to facilitate communication or even high-tech iPads or computer devices specifically used for communication.)  I need to get registered and decide which presentations to attend!  I'm looking forward to getting the latest information on CAS research as well as connecting with other parents of apraxic kids.

Celebration!

Nate celebrated his 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago with friends and family.  He had a great time!  I remember that just two years ago, blowing out candles was a difficult thing and this year, he had no problems!

The weekend after his birthday we went and had some fun in the snow.  Nate really enjoys the snow and has been wanting to go all winter long.  He did some sledding and had a great time.  Here's a quick video of him sledding on his own for the first time.  He had so much fun that he didn't want to stop!

This past Friday we had a follow-up appointment with one of the developmental pediatricians we had seen nearly 1 1/2 years ago.  I think we spent nearly an hour with her.  She had him perform some different tasks and went through all the different questions about development, speech and coordination.  She felt that since the his speech issues are motor coordination, that speech should be covered by Kaiser.  She put in for an evaluation for speech (again) and to meet with a geneticist--to rule out any other genetic disorders Nate hasn't already been screened for.  Unfortunately at this point I think we're just at the wait and see stage.  With six sessions of speech a week, he is making small improvements with more spontaneous word attempts and signing, but with the severity of his apraxia it's going to take a lot of time and practice on his part.  Just the other day, he was wanting ice out of the dispenser and he said "ief" on his own.  Since approximations are what we want, it was very exciting to hear him say that, especially since he wasn't repeating after us!

I often like to read whatever I can find on-line about CAS and just today I found this news report on children with CAS.  It was on a local station in Pittsburg.  I really like watching videos and hearing about other kids with CAS.  It helps me feel better about the things we are doing for Nate.  It's been a while, so I will have to post some more updated video on Nate soon.

Normal Speech

What is normal?

 

nor·mal

–adjective

1.

conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

I've been wanting to get some videos posted, as a way to share Nate's progress in therapy.  This is Nate's normal speech.  Normal for him but abnormal in comparison to how a 3 year old should be talking.  Here he's saying something about a puzzle piece he's working with during one of his speech sessions.  Sometimes you can pick out things that sound like "words", usually just the vowel sounds in the syllables, but here, I'm not really sure what he's saying.  

Nate's been going to speech through the school district for almost 3 months.  He's getting better at some of the individual sounds, like /p/ and /t/.  The sound for t is one that's easiest for him.  Here, he's working on the word tree.  He knows the sign and his speech pathologist is trying to get him to say tree or a version of it (tee).  Some of the things I've read about working with apraxic kids, suggests that approximations of words are a good focus as well.  They've also been working on some hand signals to go along with the place where the sound is made, like the t sound being made in the front of the mouth, as opposed to the k sound being made in the throat.

     

One of the sounds he really struggles with is /s/, like in snake.  Instead of blowing air out of his mouth, he approximates the sound by blowing air out of his nose.

Here he's trying to say the word book.  Sometimes he can say the individual sounds, but many of the times, he's groping to find the right sound to say at the right sound and that's not even being able to string them together into a quick and complete word.

And finally....the word that I'm hoping he'll one day be able to say on his own.  He can make all the individual sounds for it, but stringing it together and using it is a whole other thing....

Some days are harder than others, when I think about all the conversations we're missing out on with him, or that he's missing out on with us.  He finds other ways to communicate with us, so it's not like he's silently watching the world go by.  I just often wonder if he'll ever learn how to talk.