Rare

My friend, Laura, posted about how rare it is to be truly globally apraxic.  I had heard of apraxia in my studies to be an SLP, but it was not covered much at all.  I remember: lots of repetition,backward chaining, and motor planning.  That is it, and it is very serious, you won't see it much.  Then I have treated kids with it, but typically more like phonologically processes when they get to me.  I have a little kid with DS now that is pretty much nonverbal that I am using a lot of the tactile cues with, and she is starting to imitate.  Parents are thrilled, so motor planning is tough, but can move along.  Then, yes, it is in the whole body.

What does that mean?

It's the same as speech kind of: tons of repetition.  If you don't work on a skill or use it, it is lost.  It can be gone so fast.  So annoying and so much work.


I see global apraxia all the time with my son.

We sing a lot, because then his body is prepared that it has to respond and it knows when.  If I say what's on your shirt, he can't motor plan to look down and touch his shirt, but if we sing "row row, and if i end, if you see your shirt...." he easily touches his shirt.  The motor plan needs to be triggered because he cannot initiate.  That's how I check what he understands.  I sang that song yesterday a lot: for the christmas tree, pajamas, something red, whatever. It seems easier for him.  I try to fade it and he is getting better at his body parts without a song involved.


When we do "my turn, your turn," maybe 2/6 times Landon can point to himself to say it's his turn.  Other times, he is just frozen.  I cue his little hand and he points to himself.  He cannot initiate the movement.


When he first learned to stand up from the ground, i had to cue his body into position, then he could stand up.  I did this every single thing I saw him try to stand up for about 2 weeks, then he had the motor plan down.

With kicking, now he can lift his leg, but it just hangs there. He can't move it forward without being cued.


All this is global apraxia.   Landon does get things with repetition.  He is doing much better in so many areas now.  It is a lot of extra work for me and obviously a ton for him.  So much work.  So hard for him.  It is not fair, not fair at all.   We just keep on keeping on.  Play skills are the hardest.  Take all these individual skills and mush them into a sequence of moves. ugh. it's killer.

Keep working, sweet boy.  You inspire me to keep working so hard for you too.  Love you <3momma