Zachary

Zachary on 1/3/08 (4 yrs, 1 month old) saying, "And now what. Um. What do you want to say? No something else. Yeah. Which button do I hit do it to hear it?"

Zachary on 11/28/07 (4 yrs old) saying, "My day was great. Now. My birthday. Three. Six. Seven. One, two, six, eight. One, two, six, eight. Eight. Six. Nine. Eight. Seven. Nine. Six. One, two, three, four."

Zachary on 11/22/07 (4 yrs) saying, "It is emily elitzabeth. Her big red dog Clifford. Yeah. He sits. And he wags his tail and um and he and look. A stick. I want to hear it."

Let Zachary's mother, Lisa, know what you think of her speech, by writing to her at naitespa@optonline.net

Zachary on 1/17/07 (3 yrs, 1.5 months old) saying, "Nuts. Look at that. I’m gonna get it. That a big plane. That a big airplane. A bug. But I call it a bug."

Zachary on 11/12/06 (2 yrs, 11 months old) saying, "Now do that page. Now do this page. Ya,I see cat on this page. There’s cat right there. ---- There’s the cat right there, Yeah, sleeping on the puppet. There’s cat. Awake. See cat on that page. That spider. that big spider. Now do this page. That a monster. Yes, a big monster."

Zachary on 9/5/06 (2 yrs, 9 months old) saying, "Yes, no, I don’t know, it too dark, monster, lantern, bigger lantern, no, yes, no, monster, yes, in there, monster in there, yes, yes, yes, (unintelligible) it’s dark, it’s very dark, moon out there, stars out there, little bear sleep in big bear’s arms, little bear sleeps, big bear fell asleep too, the end."

Zachary on 7/5/06 (2 yrs, 7 months old) saying, "Bubble, juggling balls, bubbles, balls, 1, 2 balls, 1, 2 holes missing. 1, 2 holes. 1, 2 holes. 1, 2 holes missing. 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, mama, bee, bumble bee, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2 ,3. 1 spot. 1, 2,3, 4 holes, butterfly wings, missing, ___missing eye glasses, missing eye glasses."

Zachary on 4/30/06 (2 yrs, 5 months old) saying, "My name is Zach, ball, cat, dog, I want to say (good) night."

Let Zachary's mother, Lisa, know what you think of her speech, by writing to her at naitespa@optonline.net

Zachary's Story
by Lisa

We knew Zachary had trouble speaking by the time he was a year old. He never babbled and the few sounds he did make were unintelligible word approximations. We began teaching him sign language at fifteen months of age. He began communicating with signs shortly thereafter and by eighteen months he was using sign language for most of his wants. Once he turned two, we pushed to have him evaluated for the Early Intervention program. He qualified to receive speech therapy twice a week for 45 minutes sessions and started these when he was 2.2 years old. We had a wonderful speech language pathologist who rather early on in his work with Zachary mentioned that he sounded as if he had Apraxia. We had never heard of this. An internet search about Apraxia made us believe that he did have the disorder, but he was too young to receive a diagnosis. Fortunately, his SLP worked steady with him and Zachary made wonderful progress.

He received an official diagnosis of Verbal Apraxia when he was 2.8 years old. By this time, his expressive language scores had improved dramatically, but his articulation was terrible. He was phased out of Early Intervention and into a therapy facility. He now receives speech therapy three times a week for thirty minute sessions.

It is still too early to know whether Zachary will show any learning disabilities, but to date, no other problems have been found. He has no hypotonia or sensory integration problems, he never had any feeding problems and, other than speech, he achieved all his developmental milestones either early or on time. He has normal cognitive skills for his age and, although shy and inhibited in large groups, is very engaging and talkative when he is comfortable with someone.

We are hopeful that he will continue to improve and will one day speak clearly.