How can I find out if my child (5 yr old, preverbal, uses ACC, high receptive skills) has motor planning issues? Which specialist is in charge of this? So far every time I ask about clarification on her evaluations, all they say is “we don’t know yet.” I feel that she is already 5 and I need to know if she has apraxia or anything else that requires special therapy.
She has a hard time imitating and her receptive mind is getting way ahead of her expressive and I feel this is holding her back, from participating in social activities and learning to talk. She can learn a lot of things receptively and respond on her iPad BUT anything involving motor imitation, she can’t do easily. This was why we dropped sign language.
I want to start teaching simple social games but the imitation is so weak. Object imitation is part of her ABA but I don’t see much progress. I don’t know if they are going at it enough.
To clarify she DOES have good motor skills when she is doing things herself (that she knows how to do already). It is the trying to teach her to copy us or do things on command that is difficult. She wants interaction with other people which is why I want to teach her appropriate games to play. I truly feel we need to get solid imitation for her to learn how to do things easier instead of struggle.
Answer:
Hi good afternoon! Your preverbal baby sounds like she has a lot of red flags for apraxia, the most prevalent one being higher receptive language vs expressive. To answer your first question, here is the specialist who is "in charge" of this - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-apraxia-of-speech/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20352051#:~:text=To%20evaluate%20your%20child's%20condition,speech%20sounds%2C%20words%20and%20phrases.
A speech language pathologist can diagnose apraxia but it is not an easy task. They require a lot of repetition, almost drilling, in order to build those neural pathways that have been affected somehow by apraxia. They also require a large amount of prompting (verbal, visual, tactile). Some therapy modalities used to treat it are PROMPT and DTTC. I would use a lot of hand over hand to teach her the motor aspect of the social games you want to teach her. And look for an SLP that specializes in apraxia. Hope this helps!
Hi good afternoon! Your preverbal baby sounds like she has a lot of red flags for apraxia, the most prevalent one being higher receptive language vs expressive. To answer your first question, here is the specialist who is “in charge” of this – https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-apraxia-of-speech/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20352051#:~:text=To%20evaluate%20your%20child's%20condition,speech%20sounds%2C%20words%20and%20phrases.
A speech language pathologist can diagnose apraxia but it is not an easy task. They require a lot of repetition, almost drilling, in order to build those neural pathways that have been affected somehow by apraxia. They also require a large amount of prompting (verbal, visual, tactile). Some therapy modalities used to treat it are PROMPT and DTTC. I would use a lot of hand over hand to teach her the motor aspect of the social games you want to teach her. And look for an SLP that specializes in apraxia. Hope this helps!
Thank you so much! Would you be able to tell me if I happened to mention any of the other red flags for apraxia besides the receptive language being higher? Also, are there any other disorders that are similar to apraxia that an SLP should consider? Thanks