Is apraxia part of the autism spectrum disorders? Sensory problems? Food allergy?
My son was recently diagnosed with apraxia at age 2.5. He has been in speech since 20 months (3x a week). He is 2 months shy of 3 yrs. He has made ...
My son was recently diagnosed with apraxia at age 2.5. He has been in speech since 20 months (3x a week). He is 2 months shy of 3 yrs. He has made huge leaps and bounds over where he was. At 18 months he said 3 partial words. He picked up sign language extremely quickly. He understood you and followed directions (most of the time). He is still well behind where other children his age are. His Speech Language pathologist (SLP) said if he keeps making as much progress as he has, and keeps the pace up, by the time kindergarten comes, he shouldn’t be far behind the other kids. I was ecstatic upon hearing that. His hearing is fine. His intelligence is very good.
I have noticed a few things though. I still have a gut feeling that something just isn’t right. He is the most destructive child I’ve ever had. He is worse than his two older brothers were combined. (The older brothers were less than 2 years apart, and would team up together and baby powder the house, and stick of lincoln logs up the vacuum, etc) He is so busy getting into everything. Turn your back a second, to take feed/change his little brother, and you have: powered laundry detergent down the lint screen hole in the dryer, or all 5 lbs of cat food poured on the floor, or dad’s poster paints all over the carpet, or lipstick drawings on the walls and carpet, or toothpaste squeezed out all over the bathroom sinks, labels riped off all the cans of food, etc. I have baby locks on all the cabinets, but he figured them out in 2 days. I do lock doors, but he knows how to use the keys. He is a climber. He will climb on everything. He has a ton of toys. I play with him. He loves to help me with housework: putting wet laundry in the dryer, carrying groceries, making daddy’s coffee, etc.
He has other behavior issues. It is really hard to put a finger on it. He won’t ever settle down. Taking him to the doctors is a nightmare. We went to the cardiologist for a heart murmur. They went to put sticker on his chest to get a heart tracing. He lost it He screamed and sweated so much, the stickers were falling off. There was Toy Story 2 on right in front of him. The nurse brought stickers, and a lollipop, and a juice box, anything to get him to calm down. Obviously, stickers don’t hurt. It took myself and another nurse to hold him down. He acted like we were killing him. The nurse mentioned sensory issues. He hates bandages. Even the ones with the characters he likes, he will cry if they are on him. He refuses to get his blood pressure taken. Even before the cuff tightens, he is screaming "off me". He hates certain things. He hates sitting in the grocery carts, seat or basket. The diaper changing pad has a cover on it. I was washing both covers, and he screamed and yelled about it touching him. "Ow, Ow, off me!" I also changed his little brother on it. There were no complaints from him. He hates his car seat. It is a very nice seat, with a lot of cushioning. His complaint is the straps. Sometimes he will scream hysterically about sitting with the straps on. He’ll sit without the straps no problem. He’ll scream "Go me" (Let go of me.) He’ll work himself up so much that he’ll try to make himself throw-up. I’ve tightened the straps. I’ve loosened the strap, until they were basically useless. The straps have padding on them where the strap hits the shoulder. It makes no difference. He has issues with tags. Of course some tags are scratchy, as everyone has felt before. I removed those tags. Some are made out of very soft ribbon. He hates those too. Of course the same type ribbon is on his stuffed frog that he must carry everywhere. The tag is something that he rubs constantly with his finger. I don’t get it.
The SLP said that he definitely doesn’t have PDD. She says that while she is no doctor, she treats those children everyday, and there is no comparison between my son and the children with PDD. The pediatrician says that his behaviors are similar to some of her autistic patients. Then she referred me back to the SLP he is seeing. DUH!! I can’t help but think there is something else going on. He wants to interact with you, and likes to cling to me most of the day. Does the above sound like a sensory issue? It is very difficult to get referrals to specialists here. I’m trying to get one to a developmental pediatrician.
He also has a problem drinking milk. I’m certain there is something in his genetics. He will have diarrhea 3x a day with any milk consumption. His older brother has a milk protein allergy. He had bloody diapers as a baby. His younger brothor vomited blood and has a protein allergy. He is on feeding tube formula. His older brother didn’t have any issues with speech and was recently told he is gifted. I read something on Google that said that allergies sometimes follow/precede apraxia and autism. Any feelings on this??
Any feedback, personal experiences are
It sounds to me like your son has a issue with sensory items. Autism has a huge spectrum from kids that are not able to function to children that suffer from only a few signs of Autism.
Some major red flags of autism are:
No big smiles by 6 months
No back and forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by 9 months
No back and forth gestures such as pointing, showing, or waving by 12 months
No words by 16 months
No 2 word meaningful phrases by 24 months
Loss of speech at any age
Sometimes when you are looking at problems with speech and allergies you can get a miss diagnosis of what a child has. The symptoms of one disorder can mimic others. From the what you have told me about your son I would definatly look into have him tested on a medical level for things like allergies that could be triggering these symptoms. I would also talk to a childhood phsycologist and have him tested for sensory issues and Autism.
The earlier you get him tested the earlier that you can start early interventions which are key. You have seen this with the SLP and the progress that your son has made. He will be able to work with an early childhood special education teacher and an occupational therapist. They will be able to help you and your son with behavioral and sensory issues.
I hope this helps! Feel free to contact me with any further questions you have and I will try my best to answer them for you.
print out your post and discuss it with his doctor & therapist. meet with a nutritionist to discuss a diet modification.
definitely something going on there – sounds so much like my oldest was. she’s nearly 24 and found out at the age of 20 that instead of tourette’s AND ocd AND adhd AND a sleep disorder AND anorexia syndrome AND a "personality disorder of a pervasive nature" (but nothing more specific than that and nothing ever came of it) that she probably has asperger’s syndrome. i looked it up and it certainly hit on all counts.
my youngest is like that, but not to such a negative extent – she smiles and is very charming and sociable whilst my oldest made even bikers in full leather gear ask me to turn the stroller around because her staring gave them the willies. she doesn’t like anything fuzzy or fluffy – won’t have it touch her. she prefers to sleep with things like the kitchen ladle or a big board book; hard, smooth surfaces instead of her kissy-bunny blanket or a stuffy. she is TERRIFIED of bugs – i mean irrational hysterics, even if it’s a butterfly. she will now tolerate butterfly pictures and acknowledges they’re pretty but if she sees one in real life, it’s melt-down city. she also has speech problems – doing much better; starts her second round of speech therapy next week. they say there’s a neurological problem – her mouth isn’t forming sounds properly even when you show her (sticks her tongue out between her teeth when she makes the L sound, ie, and has six different version of the M sound: "loo-lan" instead of "mulan"; "nax and booby" instead of "max and ruby"; "oo-wee" instead of "movie"; etc).
her hearing was tested and it’s fine – by that, i mean she has no infection but i forgot she is showing signs of hearing loss in certain frequencies MAYBE. she is being retested on march 1st to see if the test is confirmed. because of her inability to respond and understand what he was saying and her fear of the stuffed animals they were using, it’s a bit difficult to say for sure.
my second daughter – nearly 21 – had the exact same speech problems. when she was 18mo old, the doctor discovered she had a silent ear infection so bad he couldn’t even find her ear drum, it was all so swollen in there. he couldn’t believe she was just sitting there calmly and smiling away – said she should be screaming in agony. it took nine months of heavy-hitting antibiotics to get rid of it – she’d be fine on the meds and a week after stopping, the infection would return. probably as a result, she grew up with central auditory processing disorder.