verbal dyspraxia

scotty1971

My four year old daughter has just been diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia is there any other parents who have children with this.i would appreciate any advice and tips on how to deal with this.She already attends speech and language once a week and seem to be making good progress.

thanks

scott

scotty1971

anyone have any advice?

nlj1520

I would ask the speech and language therapist to give you exercises to do with your daughter at home. We did this with my son, who although not diagnosed with dyspraxia (there were too many other problems going on) showed all the signs.
We used to dip lollypop sticks or tongue depressers into something he really liked and get him to lick it......putting the stick in different positions so that he had to use his tongue in different ways, out and up towards his upper lip, to the right and left and downwards. We used to put lipstick on him and get him to 'kiss' bits of paper to encourage the muscles around his mouth to pucker his lips. At home we encouraged him to lick his plate clean to get his tongue working better. In my son's case he had poor breath control as well, so we used to play blowing games with ping pong balls. We used to pull exagerated faces to make EEEEE and OOOOOO and AAAAA sounds. We used to encourage him to try to make 'BAH' sounds as using both lips together on b and p is difficult for someone with dyspraxia. We used to get him to blow bubbles with bubble stuff which was good for oral motor control and breath control. The speech and language therapist has recently given him a story called 'Mr Tongue' which gets him to imitate the pictures in it.
Hope some of this helps, but the best source of information is going to be your daughters own speech and language therapist.
Good luck!

gadjah543

My sister's little girl was diagnosed. They both went to sign language classes so they could communicate with each other whilst her muscle tone improved.She is now 15 and you wouldn't know that she had a speech defect when she was younger.

Frith

My little brother had this (he is now 30 so I'll see what I can remember!)

He had many exercises like gadjah described and went to speech therapy weekly for about 5 years and also to summer camps for intensive courses.

Mum and dad continued the speech therapists exercises at home and I remember every one of his tractors and cars had a sticker on. I remember the big John Deere in particular was called Sp and you'd have races with Th, F and Ssss.

cuthbert21

My 7 year old son was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia when he was around 3 and going to nursery. I suspected it earlier but his actual diagnosis was made then. Our Speech and language therapist team were great. They explained why my son had his problems and expected progress. It was mainly exercises in the early days with exercises around moving his tongue and sucking blowing and licking games...make it fun.It then moved to using jolly phonics sounds and lots of games around this. I didn't imagine at the time that he would ever talk.... but take heart as your child will... all takes a lot of game playing and exercises little and often. Nursery had my son registered with educational learning needs program and he got extra funding for extra help at nursery with his difficulties, we tried makaton for a while, but he just didn, t want to do it.We made photo books so he could let me what he wanted. If your child will be starting school you need to think if a statement is appropriate. Making himself understood to other children and adults was tricky.Our SALT wanted our son to go to a primary school miles away which had a language unit attatched.I am so glad we didn, t as he could be with his older brother at our local primary school...and has had loads of support from his teachers and SALT who now see him in school, and work with his one to one. My son now chatters away, gets muddled with his words sometimes but is generally not awkward joining in conversations with family and his mates. He even read out a poem at our harvest festival... we have come a long way and still have a way to go but don't feel that things will never get better...they will. It just takes time and loads of patience.:)

jackyann

Talk to your speech therapist, your child's school / nursery etc.
And look at this site: http://www.afasic.org.uk/

good luck