Apraxia

[Tina2]

Just wondering if anyone can give me suggestions on what to do with an apraxic preschooler. He is able to produce all sounds and make sentences, but his intelligibility decreases as the sentences get longer. I don't really think that doing CV, CVC, etc words is helpful. I have been having him produce sentences during play and I am using tactile cues to help with production of all sounds in a sentence (like a pacing board). This seems to help a lot, but is there anything else that I can do to help this child??????
Thank you for your help!!

[P.B.]

Have you checked out his oral motor abilities, such as jaw stability and differentiation? You may find the exercises that Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson recommends to be helpful. I found it to work with some of my apraxic children. Good Luck.

[kathyslp1]

You might look at the execellent resources available at www.apraxia-kids.org. They have internet discussion groups and you may get some additional feedback since their users are all interested in this topic.

[kiri]

Also try: www.kidspeech.com
While Nancy's approaches aren't loved by everyone- she is a wonderful resource (I actually accompanied one of my patients up there and was trained by her personally) she LOVES to help fellow professionals with ideas and suggestions.

Since Apraxia is about motor programming- try non-speech programming first. I put a train on my wall with different animals in each car. As they trace along the train- they produce each sound- in succession. Then we move up to sounds, words and phrases in each car.
Good Luck!

[idonac]

Practice, practice, practice. The apraxic children I have on my caseload need practice. In isolation of sounds,building on that with CV<VC<CVC<etc. Oral motor exercises are so important also. Heck the OT/PT said that exercises that cross the midline of the body maybe benificial. I think they help. :rolleyes:

<small>[ May 14, 2003, 05:25 PM: Message edited by: idonac ]</small>