8 minute read
Meet the Young Family
BY MELANIE YOUNG: WRITER AND CONTRIBUTOR
My oldest son was two when we moved to be closer to my husband’s job. We built our new home in a neighborhood full of kids and we were so excited for our son to make his first friends.
We met our neighbors and their kids quickly started coming to our home to play in the sandbox and in our yard. Most of the kids were around my son’s age and we quickly learned he did not quite fit in with the crowd. When he tried talking to the kids, they didn’t understand him and for a brief time, they tolerated him, but then just started to ignore him or played around him but not with him.
We had noticed that he did not have as many words as he should have at his age, and most of the ones he did have were not fully understandable except by my husband and I. After noticing the distinct differences in speech between our son and his peers, we reached out to his pediatrician and then to our local ISD (intermediate school district) to have our son evaluated for early intervention services.
affectionately referred to them as “his ladies”. When he turned four he was evaluated and began speech therapy with our local school district for Articulation Disorder.
Near the end of the school year, which was also the end of his therapy until September, his therapist was frustrated with his lack of progress. She literally threw her hands up in front of him and me and said “I can’t help him anymore. I think he has Apraxia.” No explanation, no resources. Nothing. We left and I felt defeated, like I had failed my son. That evening I dove into research about apraxia of speech. Unfortunately, there was not much info available. I was lucky enough to find that one of the best clinics in Michigan was within driving distance for us, so I made a call and got an appointment at the Kaufman Children’s Center located about 45 minutes away from our home.
Clinic founder and world renowned Apraxia treatment pioneer Nancy Kaufman did his evaluation herself and provided us with a DVD of the session. She explained that he did have Childhood Apraxia of Speech, a neurological speech disorder that makes it hard for the brain and mouth to coordinate sounds. She prescribed intensive therapy twice a week in her clinic over the summer as well as work to do at home. She said that he did not progress with the previous therapist because the therapy done for articulation disorder is different that the therapy for Apraxia.
He attended speech therapy at Kaufman over the summer and made great progress so that he only needed to have therapy through our new school district during the school year. We changed schools after the incident with the previous therapist as she would have been his therapist in kindergarten at his school.
Meanwhile, our youngest son Ryan was nearly three years old and his speech sounded a lot like his brother’s so we took him to Kaufman to have him evaluated. We also took him to our ISD and found that his speech disorder was worse than his older brother’s. Ryan had virtually no correct sounds at the beginning or end of most words. Only my husband and I could really understand him when he spoke.
During his speech evaluation, Nancy Kaufman noticed some other issues so she suggested we have an Occupational Therapy evaluation. It turned out he also had Sensory Processing Disorder. So much made sense about his behaviors! He had no fear and no sense of danger. He would jump off of things –including our outdoor playset without pause. He would run into things. He could not run more than a few feet without falling. He also hated large groups of people, hated bright lights and noisy stores. He was prescribed both Speech and Occupational Therapy.
We drove the 45 minutes one way to Kaufman for both speech and Occupational therapy twice a week for over a year and a half. It was hard. Some weeks I could tell he was improving. Other weeks he would take a step backward. We had to learn about sensory diets and what the right one was for Ryan. We had to learn about the other senses, including the Vestibular sense and the Proprioceptive sense and how to make sure Ryan had enough input of both of those in his daily routine Otherwise he became overwhelmed.
It was a hard couple of years, between therapies at the center, school based therapies, and practice at home. During this time, my husband was the sole bread winner, as there would have been no way for me to work and coordinate and transport both boys to school and therapies. Between both boys, they had 17 years of speech therapy. Both were able to graduate from speech therapy after elementary school and did not need to have IEPs past elementary school.
There are some learning issues that can co-occur with Apraxia. One is Auditory Processing Disorder. Ryan continues to have difficulties processing things that teachers say at times and has trouble processing dates in sequences, as well as processing lots of information, such as multiple step math problems. He has a 504 plan that allows for accommodations to assist with these issues.
While it seems overwhelming, it was not all work and struggles. There were some wonderful moments. Like when my oldest spoke in front of 100 people for his Middle School National Honor Society induction. Or when Ryan spoke in front of over 300 people at his elementary school’s Grandparent’s Day celebration.
Both boys have had successful school careers. Both have been part of the National Honor Society. My oldest is a member of his University’s Engineering Honor Society and has been on the Dean’s list every semester in college. Ryan was also the keynote speaker at the 2023 Detroit Walk for Apraxia and spoke about his experience with Apraxia.
Both have been involved in baseball basically their entire lives and have achieved great success at the sport. However, I am most proud of the hard work they had to do to be able to speak and communicate like “typical” kids. While most kids were in preschool learning how to make friends, mine were in speech therapy. That has made it difficult at times for each of them to make and maintain friendships. They both have a few close friends and that is really all one needs in life.
I am in awe of their strength and fortitude. I am so proud of the young men that they have become after all they have had to overcome.
My advice to parents who suspect their child may have a disability or learning issue is to seek help as soon as possible. Early intervention worked wonders for my boys and I truly do not know where they would be today without it. Once they received the appropriate therapies from the wonderful teams at Kaufman and at our school district, they both made great progress. As Ryan said in his speech, “It may be hard now, but don’t give up.”
RYAN’S STORY: LIVING WITH APRAXIA
BY RYAN YOUNG
My name is Ryan Young, and I have apraxia. I have had this all my life and whatever I have done my whole life, I have not let it stop me. I will be honest, it was a very hard part of my life for many years. It made it so almost no one could understand anything I said. Pretty much the only people who could understand me were my parents. But as I got older I worked hard to improve my speech. By the time I was in elementary school many people were able to understand me, but I was still nervous to talk because I was worried that I would get made fun of for my speech issues.
Instead of letting that bother me my whole life, my parents found me a speech private teacher. She helped me a lot, she improved my speech and improved my nervousness. Overall, I had speech therapy for nearly 8 years.
Apraxia is still a huge part of my life. I am 17 years old now and still have trouble pronouncing some words. So even if it does not seem to be getting better it will, it may take many years for it to, but you just need to keep at it and it will get better. Not too long ago I spoke at the Detroit Walk for Apraxia and it was a cool way to get my experience out there in front of parents of kids who have Apraxia.
