Oral Apraxia
Remember our issues with Mr. Miracle's speech? For a long time the speech therapist said she felt Mr. Miracle had apraxia. She had even at one point begun treating him as if he had apraxia.
Well, when Mr. Miracle was tested at 3 by the school district, his speech was within 2 standard deviations of the norm and therefore he didn't qualify for help.
I assumed the Speech Therapist had been wrong.
I was wrong.
While the OT was here I asked her why Mr. Miracle bites himself so frequently. Meaning while eating he bites his cheek, tongue, lips...and sometimes even his own fingers. He's bitten himself hard enough to bleed often on the soft tissues (i.e. not his fingers).
She said she didn't know, but she'd look into it. She ran him through a couple of tests and we found out that Mr. Miracle has little to no control of his tongue. He can stick it out, but licking anything is out of the question. Same with moving his tongue to one side or the other. Peanut can do this! Mr. Miracle cannot unless he pushes his tongue with his fingers and looks in a mirror.
According to the OT, this is oral apraxia. It would greatly explain Mr. Miracle's issues with learning to speak. With the oral apraxia plus the almost constant fluid in his ears, he was swimming against the current where speech was concerned. Once we took care of part of it, and the Speech Therapist was teaching him as if he had apraxia, he started talking and learning new words!
So, now we're back dealing with apraxia again...
I need to get a report from the OT regarding this so that I can contact Mr. Miracle's County School Aged Administrator and then I'm going to ask around at his special need's preschool regarding him getting therapy for this while he's there.
The OT has us doing some special things to help (tongue exercises, and fun things like trying to lick peanut butter off a spoon, the filling of an Oreo cookie, or maybe an ice cream cone - though with his dairy issue, it's a sorbet cone), but I'd like to make sure his speech won't or hasn't suffered because of this.
What is apraxia? I'll deal with filling in the details later. For now, it means motor issues. In Mr. Miracle's case, the issue is in his mouth.
Why does it matter? Why am I having this issue dealt with when Mr. Miracle would find a way to eat without hurting himself on his own eventually? Well, imagine you are a man without the ability to lick anything. That's right...I'm doing this for his future girlfriends and wife. Someday they will thank me.
Well, when Mr. Miracle was tested at 3 by the school district, his speech was within 2 standard deviations of the norm and therefore he didn't qualify for help.
I assumed the Speech Therapist had been wrong.
I was wrong.
While the OT was here I asked her why Mr. Miracle bites himself so frequently. Meaning while eating he bites his cheek, tongue, lips...and sometimes even his own fingers. He's bitten himself hard enough to bleed often on the soft tissues (i.e. not his fingers).
She said she didn't know, but she'd look into it. She ran him through a couple of tests and we found out that Mr. Miracle has little to no control of his tongue. He can stick it out, but licking anything is out of the question. Same with moving his tongue to one side or the other. Peanut can do this! Mr. Miracle cannot unless he pushes his tongue with his fingers and looks in a mirror.
According to the OT, this is oral apraxia. It would greatly explain Mr. Miracle's issues with learning to speak. With the oral apraxia plus the almost constant fluid in his ears, he was swimming against the current where speech was concerned. Once we took care of part of it, and the Speech Therapist was teaching him as if he had apraxia, he started talking and learning new words!
So, now we're back dealing with apraxia again...
I need to get a report from the OT regarding this so that I can contact Mr. Miracle's County School Aged Administrator and then I'm going to ask around at his special need's preschool regarding him getting therapy for this while he's there.
The OT has us doing some special things to help (tongue exercises, and fun things like trying to lick peanut butter off a spoon, the filling of an Oreo cookie, or maybe an ice cream cone - though with his dairy issue, it's a sorbet cone), but I'd like to make sure his speech won't or hasn't suffered because of this.
What is apraxia? I'll deal with filling in the details later. For now, it means motor issues. In Mr. Miracle's case, the issue is in his mouth.
Why does it matter? Why am I having this issue dealt with when Mr. Miracle would find a way to eat without hurting himself on his own eventually? Well, imagine you are a man without the ability to lick anything. That's right...I'm doing this for his future girlfriends and wife. Someday they will thank me.
posted by Hostile in Ohio | 8/22/2007
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