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Late Talkers
Correctly Diagnosing Speech Disorders By Kelly Burgess
At the end of her son's first therapy session to treat his apraxia, Sharon Gretz broke down and cried. "I heard more sounds from Luke's mouth that day than I had heard in his first three years," says Gretz. "Just seeing him so excited about being able to make those sounds and knowing that he was getting the right kind of help filled me with emotion."
Some of that emotion, unfortunately, was regret at the time they had wasted in traditional speech therapy when, in fact, apraxia of speech is not a traditional speech disorder. Gretz, of Indiana Township, Penn., who went on to found the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association, notes that apraxia is often wrongly diagnosed because it's thought of as an adult disorder.
The name apraxia comes from the root word "praxis," which means "planned movement," and there are actually several forms of the disorder. With verbal apraxia, children have difficulty planning and producing the specific series of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech. With oral apraxia, they are unable to carry out facial movements on command, such as blowing out a candle or licking their lips. This also impacts the ability to verbalize.
Dr. Marilyn Agin, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and co-author of The Late Talker: What to Do If Your Child Isn't Talking Yet
