Age at diagnosis?

[lmjess]

My son is 17 months old and has been seeing a speech therapist since he was 9 months old. It started with feeding therapy because he wouldn't take a bottle or baby food. He also has some swallowing issues (gagging, choking, etc . . . ) But, he started weekly speech therapy about 2 months ago because he has no speech.

His therapist has suggested apraxia all along as a possible diagnosis. I just wanted to hear what age most kids get diagnosed at. Also, what are some good at home activities to work with him on?

[Mipsy]

Our SLP said they're not typically diagnosed til they're 3. My son will be 3 in 2 months and was just diagnosed.


With your sons swallowing issues, have they discussed dysphagia or do you know if he has it?

[MamaJane]

 26 months, but it could have been sooner.  Sounds like a good possibility for your guy.

We did whistle therapy at home.  That was his favorite.  She got us 5 whistles and they got harder to blow with each one.  He would have to blow it a certain amount of times each day and if he did it a certain amount then he got a new whistle.  We still have his last whistle!  LOL (he's 11 now)  The rest that we did was just play.  When he got older we did flash cards.  Oh and I greatly recommend sign. We also tried the picture board but sign worked way better for us.

[3totsinabox]

 my son was late he was just diagnosed at 5 and a half.  At your sons age, I would stick with simple one and two syllable words.

[lmjess]

My speech path clearly sees the signs of a motor disorder. It's frustrating to watch him want to make sounds and nothing comes out! He has started to make some vegitative sounds!!!

[bribren]

my daughter was 3 when diagnosed with apraxia both oral and motor.

[bribren]

Quoting MamaJane:

 26 months, but it could have been sooner.  Sounds like a good possibility for your guy.

We did whistle therapy at home.  That was his favorite.  She got us 5 whistles and they got harder to blow with each one.  He would have to blow it a certain amount of times each day and if he did it a certain amount then he got a new whistle.  We still have his last whistle!  LOL (he's 11 now)  The rest that we did was just play.  When he got older we did flash cards.  Oh and I greatly recommend sign. We also tried the picture board but sign worked way better for us.

we did this too and it worked great for us the whistle therapy that is...

[shell5403]

My son was about 3 when he was diagonised with apraxia. 

We just have a lot of reptetion to help him build his words

[mynameismuerte]

None of the SLPs that saw my son were willing to label him as actually having apraxia until he turned 3.  To be honest, he didn't have enough words or sounds to diagnosis anything up to that point anyway.  He also had feeding trouble and had to see a feeding specialist to learn to eat/chew.  When he transitioned to the school at age 3 the SLP there used the Kauffman method with him.  I can't say enough positive things about the progress he made that first year.

[shawnaquijada]

Ah this drives me nuts. Every slp we have seen for an evaluation or for therapy has told us it's very hard to get a diagnosis, and when we went to an evaluation at the childrens hospital, they told us that their special clinic for apraxia won't even see him until he's four. I'm not positive he has it but he has a lot of the symptoms. For now he's just seeing an slp that works out of her home (very affordable, and we could afford any other private therapy). I'm amazed that you guys got diagnoses so early.

[shawnaquijada]

Mamajane, how is his speech now?