verbal apraxia

[mom2agang]

How do you homeschool with verbal apraxia? My son is 4 and was just diagnosed with severe verbal apraxia and I have no idea where to start with homeschooling. He will have private speech lessons 3x a week. Is there curriculum,dvds or books that work better than others? Is hands on better? I thaught about MUS for math because he will have to see it write it and say it. I know he won't be able to say it perfect but I thought it might help develop his speaking. Any other ideas?

[Dobela]

What are you wanting to cover right now? Anything? If it was me, I might wait a year to give therapy a chance before starting much. You could be looking at a different kid in a year. Especially since he is so young.

Specific curriculums? Right now I would look into signing instruction videos.

[prairiegirl]

I would wait at least a year before you try figuring out curriculum. A lot can happen in a year. My ds has apraxia but we just use the same curricula that I have used with my oldest. My ds is 8 and he has progressed so much in the last 4 years.

One thing, though, my ds is also dyslexic (our SLP says that apraxia and dyslexia sometimes go hand in hand.) We use Bartons Reading and Spelling program. This has helped alot in getting my ds to slow down and articulate his words better.

I would just give it time and see where your ds is in a year's time.

[SheilaZ]

I have a 8 year old whith apraxia (global and speech.) He's doing great after almost 6 years of Speech therapy. He now is down to an articulation disorder.
(At 2y 3m, he had less than 10 sounds that he cold make and only 5 understandable words. So he has made incredible progress.)

However, he does struggle with reading. He has had to learn to read the same way that he learned to speak....he has to practice everything single combination of sounds.
It has been very, very, very tedious.

I would advise to start introducing written letters when you practice speech at home. That made a huge difference for my son once he was able to make the sounds

Explode the Code has been great for him. Not a lot of writing. We also use Hooked on Phonics and SWB's OPG
Do lots of reading. The more language they hear, the better.

[Blue Hen]

My kids are older --- geez, where did all those years go? But look back with me. DS #2 was found to have severe verbal apraxia at 23m --- told he might talk by age 9 or 10 but that it was going to be a long haul.....

At age 4 my son had only 2 words, 'ma' 'ba'. We communicated via sign language. He was in speech therapy 5x a week 1-1 at the school and in preschool 3 mornings where he also received speech therapy, and had been at that level of therapy for the entire previous year. No summer break for him since he regressed tremendously as is typical with apraxic kids. Since it was our first year hs'ing I really welcomed the chance to be able to work 1-1 with my older son. He had huge learning delays at the time.... (check what he's doing now and you'll see he doesn't--homeschooling works wonders)

By age 5 DS#2 had many words and I could understand him about half the time but he came home full-time for K and from then on. We were able to continue the speech therapy at the PS until we moved from Massachusetts.

Problems with learning to read and apraxia do go hand-in-hand, but it doesn't have to be. When I read the research findings, I began working on Phonemic Awareness. We played sound games constantly. Here's a great book to give you ideas on what games to play (http://www.amazon.com/Phonemic-Awareness-Activities-Reading-Success/dp/0590372319/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248049408&sr=8-3): Phonemic Awareness Activities Reading Success. Yes there are other books to use too, just use them.

My funniest story was the time I said to son #2 -- "Do bake and firetruck begin with the same sound?"
He --- he signed YES
Me ---- "What? Listen again Bake and Firetruck"
He --- signed YES
I asked him to watch my mouth and to listen.
He ---- "Ba' and baba ah" That was how he said those two words. We laughed and really that was the first time I discoverd that my son is a comic and still is to today. It also points to a reason why it is tough for kids with apraxia to learn to read. They hear words one way but pronounce them a different way. There is a high correlation of phonemic awareness to reading: increase PA and you improve reading level.

On the days DS#2 was home he listened to Story of the World, he did Pre-Primer Explode the Code, and we did Handwriting w/out Tears. We also did Five in A Row for his Kindergarten year --- great for that year. And when he was ready, somewhere in his K year, we started Reading Reflex.

He didn't start picking up books on his own for many years but now as a kid entering 8th grade, I often find him with a book.

Carole