Talk tools

This is just a quick post to provide some information about what's new with Kevin's therapy.  The therapist has been using and recommending a variety of things to strengthen Kevin's mouth and cheek muscles.  Some of these include:  sipping applesauce through a "crazy straw," sipping through coffee stirrers (those tiny straws), bubble blowing, whistles, gumming down on popsicle sticks, etc.  

The popsicle stick was interesting.  After Kevin pursed his lips onto a popsicle stick and said "Mmmmm!" for just a minute or so, he was immediately able to pronounce words that begin with the letter M.  Amazing!  

I feel like he is definitely taking great strides forward.  Although he still tends to communicate a lot through gestures, he's a lot more open now to the idea of communicating verbally.  He's even started to try out new words spontaneously, words that we have not practiced with him.  

Occasionally he still refuses to say anything.  I'm learning tricks to help him, though.  For example, I will pull out photos of our Disney trip or a souvenir photo book and he will eagerly point out attractions that we saw and will try to name them!  After doing that for a few minutes, he kind of "warms up" and is willing to say more words.  Sometimes I'll try to get him to "warm up" before his speech therapy in order to ensure that he will have a good session with the therapist.  

It's a real joy to see my son being able to express himself to some degree with others.  I see how his little face lights up when he is able to be understood.  

Here's a blog that I came across when I first started looking into apraxia.  The little boy reminded me of Kevin, both with his speech and his appearance!  There are some videos posted of the boy's progress along with some interesting information about apraxia.  You might find it interesting to take a look at it.  

http://jenkrause.com/blog/

With time and lots of patience, we can and will overcome this Apraxia of Speech!