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10/31/01
With two boys at home and the shortage of pharmacists necessitating
overtime it's been hard to find time to update the website lately.
Zach recently had his I.E.P. (Individual Education Plan) with
his school and the the teachers and therapists there. He also
has continued to see his speech therapist, Mindy, at St. Luke's
rehab here in Spokane. The consensus seems to be that Zach has
DVD (Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia) also known as Speech
Apraxia -- difficulty in coordinating the muscles used in speech.
Zach continues his therapy and school and one of our goals
is for him to have a 50 sign sign language vocabulary by the
end of the year.
Here's some information I was able to find about it on the
internet. See related sites for links
to the individual web sites.
Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia: General Information for
Parents (David Hammer)
Developmental verbal dyspraxia (DVD), also known as developmental
apraxia of speech and as oral motor planning disorder, is a disorder
that is more easily defined by what it is not.
It is not a muscle disorder and it is not a cognitive
disorder
The problem occurs when the brain tries to tell the muscles what
to do -- somehow that message gets scrambled. It's like trying
to watch cable TV stations without the right descrambler. There
is nothing wrong with the TV station, and nothing wrong with
your set. It's just that your set can't read the signal that
the station is sending out. The child's language-learning task
is to figure out how to somehow unscramble the mixed message
her/his brain is sending to her/his muscles.
The visible results (symptoms) of DVD are:
little or no babbling in infancy; few consonants, understanding
of language much better than production of language, slow, effortful,
or halting speech; sometimes seems to struggle very hard to understand
and may make slow progress in therapy.
DVD has MUCH more effect on volitional (voluntary, creative)
speech than on automatic speech. This means that THE MORE YOUR
CHILD WANTS TO COMMUNICATE A PARTICULAR MESSAGE, THE HARDER IT
WILL BE! So, if you happen to hear her/him say something once
when there is no pressure, and you say, "Say it again!",
you are guaranteeing that she/he won't be able to. IT IS VITAL
TO PUT A MINIMUM OF COMMUNICATION PRESSURE ON THE CHILD.
NOTE: Your child's speech-language pathologist will need to put
communication pressure on the child. Low-pressure verbal activities
are the most important thing a parent can do to help. These include:
songs -- especially repetitive songs, like Old MacDonald
and finger-plays
poems
verbal routines (pat-a-cake, Willowby Walloby Woo, etc.)
repetitive books
daily routines (prayers, social greetings, salute to the flat,
etc.)
You can make other activities into verbal routines; make up little
sayings or poems that you say every time you do the same thing,
label instead of counting objects in counting books ("Three
dogs: dog, dog, dog"), verbalize repetitive activities (e.g.,
setting the table: "Plate, plate, plage, plage; fork, fork,
fork, fork."), and so on.
Don't make a big fuss about whether or not your child is talking
or singing along; just provide a supportive environment for her/him
to do so: Don't EVER say "You can't have it unless you say
it first" -- that's sheer torture for a child with DVD.
If your child is unable to communicate effectively right
now, the use of a sign language or a communication board to SUPPLEMENT
speech temporarily not only decreases the frustration but also
even seems to HELP WITH SPEECH DEVELOPMENT. Don't be afraid to
try it!
Dyspraxia may affect other motor functions (e.g. fine motor
control, gross motor planning), AND other language functions
(e.g. learning grammatical function words like "the,"
"is," "or," etc; learning more complex grammatical
forms like passive; spelling; putting words together into a sentence
or sentences together into a paragraph, etc.).
Occupational therapy, physical therapy, and learning disabilities
assistance are often helpful for children who have these difficulties.
DVD can be a very frustrating disorder at times. It is common
for children to make progress in "fits and starts"
-- good progress for a little while, then none, then more, etc.
Don't get discouraged! The therapy IS helping, even if you don't
see the effects immediately.
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Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia -- by Megan M. Guenther,
MA, CCC-SLP
Developmental verbal dyspraxia, also known as childhood apraxia,
is a serious communication disorder in which a child's ability
to carry out voluntary speech movements (pharynx, palate, tongue,
lips) are impaired in the absence of any paralysis. In addition,
children with DVD have difficulty with expressive syntax (grammar).
Children with DVD are unable to sequence speech and speech movements.
Their problem is in articulation, syntax (grammar) and phonology
and doesn't hinder other mouth functions such as eating. Their
problem is extremely resistant to traditional treatment. Children
with DVD understand much more than they can express. They may
also show subtle neurological problems.
Children with DVD exhibit multiple speech sound production
errors, involving both consonants and vowels. They may be unable
to achieve the proper mouth position needed for an individual
sound, or may be unable to maintain the proper position as the
sound is produced.
Children with DVD are unable to sequence speech sounds.
They may omit sounds in sequences of 2 or 3 or more. They may
mix the order of sounds in a given sequence. They may distort
sounds in a given sequence.
Because of these sequencing and memory weaknesses, errors
increase as word length increases and single words are clearer
than conversation. Errors vary with the complexity of the speech
sounds involved. Errors are inconsistent.
Children with DVD are not necessarily mentally retarded,
although performance on formal verbal testing may reflect "retardation"
in speech and language. Children with DVD are not typically deaf
nor even moderately hearing impaired. Their inability to produce
speech sounds results from coordination problems, not hearing
or listening problems. Children with DVD are not typically emotionally
disturbed, although behavioral outbursts are common reactions
to the frustration the child feels being unable to effectively
communicate.
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