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Late Talkers
Correctly Diagnosing Speech Disorders By Kelly Burgess
Still, Gretz cautions against any parent jumping to the conclusion that their child has apraxia just because he or she is a late talker.
"Although we do have an interest in the importance of early diagnosis, apraxia is over-diagnosed as well. I'll often hear from the distraught parents of a 15-month-old who has been diagnosed with apraxia, but there's no way a child that young has the ability to cooperate in the type of assessment necessary to correctly diagnose apraxia," says Gretz. "The earliest they can really be diagnosed is about age 2."
Once the diagnosis is made, finding a therapist qualified to treat apraxia is paramount. Therapist Nancy R. Kaufman, director of Kaufman's Children's Center for Speech, Language, Sensory/Motor and Learning Potential Inc., says that it's important to focus on building vocabulary in whatever manner the child can express that particular word – and not necessarily on drilling correct pronunciation (which is more like traditional speech therapy) because that doesn't work.
"If you tell a child with apraxia to say 'cookie' and try to articulate it over and over they will become very frustrated," says Kaufman. "Instead, we find out how they can best say 'cookie' with their abilities. The idea is to build from simple to more complex patterns. This approach gives children a functional way to communicate while they become more proficient and articulate."
