https://youtu.be/pmKzEuaz5Ag
Kelly and Leah discuss apraxia, which is a motor/speech coordination disorder that results in a person not being able to create words.
At Therapy Playground, the treatment technique we use is the Nancy Kaufman approach with the “Kaufman Cards”. This podcast shows what the cards look like and how they are used.
The front of the card has a picture, and the back of the card has the word broken down in a bottom up approach to sound out the word, this allows the child to build up to saying the word properly. This can be done by the therapist or the parent at home with their child.
Apraxia therapy can take many years, possibly most of their school years. Some children are intelligible but have issues with multi-syllabic words.
Many of our “home visits” are also children with apraxia, which can be the most difficult environment to work with because when they are in their own environment they want to run around and play. With the Kaufman approaching being so repetitive, there are a lot of drills and structure during therapy that is needed.
Although it can also be more difficult to treat younger children with this disorder, it is important to get the child into therapy as soon as possible.