Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Revisiting Apraxia

Early Intervention Speech Therapy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:11:15 GMT

Every few days or so, I read through recent comments posted throughout the blog and attempt to address

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Michele Polk — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:13:17 GMT

My Daughter is 2 and 1/2 years old and has been diagnosed with an expressive speech delay through our county infant an toddler program..She has been recieving services for about 8 months 2x a week once with a private speech therapist and once with county slp.... I believe she has severe apraxia because she has made very little progress...I am trying to get her more services through the county and also having her tested at our local pediatric hospital..I want her to have therapy daily and am fighting my county to provide the services she needs.... I am completely overwhelmed as a mother with 3 kids... Any suggestions, websites, books, anything that I can do to help my daughter more...I feel like I need to do more and financially strapped at this point to add more private speech therapy time...

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Cheryl — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:10:45 GMT

Wow - I just discovered the appraxia site and came across this interview and blog. My daughter was diagnosed at about age 3 with Developmental Apraxia of Speech. She just turned 10. She continues to make progress in her speech each year. Learning to read helped her speech a lot. She also needs special education services for reading, math, writing, language, and gets some adaptive physical education services. What information is out there about children with Developmental Cognitive Delay as well as Developmental Apraxia of Speech? I am so pleased with my child's progress each year - but more and more concerned with her social development.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Sue — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:05:15 GMT

My seven year old grandsons do not speak. The speech therapist and doctor have suggested apraxia. Where do we start? They are receiving minimal speech through their school but it helped adn we feel they need INTENSIVE assistance?

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Elisa — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:08:28 GMT

My child was diagnosed with apraxia at the age of 2 1/2. When I first heard that he had this speech disorder I also tried to find out all about this disorder I first went to the Media Library nobody there knew what it was, all I found there was just two books that was about this disorder all I wanted to do is find out more about this disorder. first my child did not speak a word, he would scream because he wanted to speak and he couldn't, so our Speech Pathologist first started to teach him sign language and that worked because he than started to try even more to use his words even if the words did not come out the way he wanted now my son is almost 5 years old, and for the first time asked his first question:"What does that do?" It was the most special words I ever heard and of course answered. I thank you Sharon with all my heart I admire you. I still blame myself alot of times, because I am a working mother I feel I should be there for him all the time and not working. Its like I want to be able to do more but I can't.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

sandra Jones — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:43:49 GMT

My story is similar. Except we were told my son had PDD. We ended up taking Colin to see Dr. Marialan Agan in June 2002.

We finally got a correct diagnoses then we were told about prompted therapy, we could not locate a therapist any where with in 100 mile radious of our home. My husband and I made arrangements to take my son to therapy at our local hospital 5 days aweek. We did NOT see any improvment untill we discovered a prompted therapist in Austin Texas, which is a 130 mile from our home. We took him once a week, with in the first year we saw a huge improvment. He went from have a ten word vocabulary to being able to speach in sentences in a year. Prompted therapy made a huge impact on my son's life.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Beth — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:53:25 GMT

My grandson was just diagnosed with severe Apraxia. He has an appointment for further evaluation at a facility in Omaha, NE that specializes in speech developmental problems. After reading through your website, I feel much more hopeful that early intervention will be helpful. Ari has been using "baby-sign" for quite awhile. He has also shown a high ability to problem-solve. I can't imagine the internal frustration he must have at not being able to be understood.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Kara — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:10:41 GMT

I agree with your use of a multi-modal approach to learning language, but I have never seen in my years working in early intervention, a child under three years of age who understood how to coordinate his articulators. Do you think your child would have responded to this before he was three?

Different Paths to Communication, Part 2

Early Intervention Speech Therapy — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:16:25 GMT

Today's post is a continuation of the one written earlier this week. In that post I highlighted the four

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Charlotte-Anne Allen — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:11:40 GMT

Thank you for a great article! I also checked out the Apraxia-Kids site and it is wonderful ... very informative and useful. Each question or thought I had regarding CAS was addressed, even regarding a Spanish-speaking child I work with who has CAS.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Bev — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:01:34 GMT

Sharon,

I applaud your courage as a parent and your devotion as a practioner and speech and language therapist to develop others' comprehension of CAS. I worked in early intervention in the early years of the century (2000... and on) and knew that there was not much material on this specific topic even then. I have to say that many "colleagues" told me I did not know what I was saying, when I complained about the lack of information about this condition, which I was told did not "exist." Bev M.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech Interview, Part 2

Early Intervention Speech Therapy — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:31:31 GMT

Tuesday's post highlighted Sharon Gretz, the Founder and Executive Director of CASANA (Childhood Apraxia

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Susan Nachimson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:05:34 GMT

Thank you for this great interview, Stephanie and Sharon! It is so important for speech-language clinicians to clearly understand that young children who do not get articulation early need to learn what the mouth is for. I am impressed with my colleague who brought this boy around and the parent who understands how important a topic this is. I have a client who is now 12 yrs old and in the autism spectrum who just last week "got" cvc words through a process of my coaching him to "voice & whisper"--e.g. in "cat", we voice "ca" and whisper "t"--this yielded a clear "cat"...this boy was not able to stop at the end of cvc words, but always ended with a schwa. He has a great AAC device and was so thrilled to add his new list of cvc words for his own practice. We never know how long a child will need to work out the sensory-motor components of their CAS, but it is worth trudging on and teaching how the mouth works along with auditory repetition (AAC). Our field is so vast and each little component hugely important! Many thanks...

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

steph bruno — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:36:38 GMT

I am so glad our readers are finding so much value in this interview. I know that I learned a great deal through speaking with Sharon. I have a few children that I am working with right now that are demonstrating the signs of apraxia and this interview and reading the Apraxia-Kids website as inspired my therapy plan.

Please read this Friday's post which will present the second half of our interview!

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Sharon Gretz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:38:58 GMT

Wow, that was a really nice thing to say. I truly appreciate your kind words.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Martha — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:28:52 GMT

Stephanie, Thank you for this excellent article. I hope your interviews with Sharon Gretz will call attention to this widespread disorder. Those of us who have children or grandchildren with Apraxia of speech are so very thankful to have the support Sharon Gretz. Her contributions to the CASANA website and the Apraxia-KIDS Email Listserv are invaluable in our struggle to give these children a voice.

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Sharon Gretz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:15:56 GMT

Christy,

I think what I'd like to suggest is a sit down meeting with your child's SLP and IEP team. I would ask directly about what the therapist intends to do differently given the new understanding that your child has apraxia of speech. I don't know what sort of therapy the SLP has been doing with your daughter so I cannot comment on whether or not it would appear to be the type of therapy that would be most appropriate if apraxia is the primary reason for your daughter's speech deficits. Also, it is important to remember that the AMOUNT of therapy or frequency is just one factor that is important to kids with CAS. An equally important question is: are the methods being used in the therapy APPROPRIATE for a child with apraxia? More of the "wrong" thing, is not going to be helpful either. So, I hope you have a good relationship with the IEP team and can talk about these issues. I invite you to our website at http://www.apraxia-kids.org where you will find a great deal of information. One place for you to be sure to visit is "Family Place". There is a Family Start Guide to Apraxia in the Family Place at Apraxia-kids.org. We also have a variety of online groups from which you will benefit. Look on our website under "e-communities" to read about them and find one that is good for you. We are here to help!

Sharon Gretz

CASANA - Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America

Internet: http://www.apraxia-kids.org

re: Interview: Sharon Gretz, MEd, on Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Christy Poole — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:18:55 GMT

My 4 year old daughter soon to be 5 in March sees a Speech Therapist at her Preschool. I was told today that she believes my daughter has Apraxia. What do I do? I feel like she needs more therapy than just twice a week. What are some activities that I could do at home with my daughter? Could you please help me?