APRAXIA

Joel's new speech therapist has recently diagnosed him with something called apraxia. This article explains what apraxia is very well and another can be read here.

Developmental apraxia of speech (DAS), is when a person has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently. They have a hard time positioning the face, tongue, lips, or jaw for the production of speech sounds and for sequencing those sounds into words. So, even though the child knows what he wants to say, he has difficulty saying it correctly when he wants to.

One of my frustrations with Joel is that he can say something perfectly clear one day, and the next day really struggle to get it out correctly. This is very typical of DAS and is only "fixed" after he has had so much practice saying those sounds correctly that it just comes as second nature to say it the correct way. Patience! I'm learning patience!

A child does not "grow out of" DAS. Speech therapy is needed to correct this. Because Joel's case is very mild, his therapist thinks that with about 2 years of intesive therapy, he will be talking pretty well. Joel has been working very hard for her, and I'm so proud of him. He's come so far in the past year alone. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for him in the past. I finally feel like we're getting to the bottom of his situation. Sometimes God brings new people in our lives to help with the next step of things, and I believe that is just what He's done through Joel's new therapist. When I thought having to find a new therapist would only set Joel back, I couldn't have been more wrong. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise!