muscle<>brain nerve connections
Heidi Crane
Tracy,
If you are right,(and if you didn't already know this! :-) there is such a
thing, where the neurons connecting the brain centers of speech to the
muscles of speech, aren't strong. A person with this weak neuronal
connection might also have trouble whistling, puckering up, blowing bubble
gum bubbles, sipping through a straw, etc. and their speech will be
difficult to understand. My husband has it, and so does my 10 year old. It
is called Speech Apraxia, and my belief (after several years of speech
therapy) is that, with time, the physiological connections will come. I
think my daughter's years of speech therapy were...I hate to say wasted,
but...wasted time and money, which also put her through a bit of sadness
about herself, as young as four years of age, thinking she must be stupid to
need lessons to talk. If I could do it again, I would not put her through
that.
Her speech did get clearer, and her grammar cleared up, too. All around the
same time, after two years of twice weekly therapy sessions...and the
grammar cleared up AFTER we quit therapy, without one single "grammar
lesson." Of course, I can't know this for sure, but I know that her grammar
corrected itself without anyone teaching her, and I wonder (and I think I'm
right) if her speech wouldn't have come around eventually without the
therapy, if I hadn't got into a panic about it, when she was three. My mil
told me, she had my hubby in speech therapy when he was a kid, but they
pulled him out and it corrected itself. Except...he is still sometimes hard
to understand. My little girl has some speech habits that are "different"
which have actually gotten comments from people wanting to know what accent
she has. But she is understandable.
And, she's 10 and her reading is coming quite slowly, but it IS coming
along. My hubby was a late reader, too. Your daughter being six is nothing,
believe me. Expect her to read when her neurons have connected and she's
ready, not when the schools say she should be.
Blessings, HeidiC who has been a panicked mother regarding verbal skills.
If you are right,(and if you didn't already know this! :-) there is such a
thing, where the neurons connecting the brain centers of speech to the
muscles of speech, aren't strong. A person with this weak neuronal
connection might also have trouble whistling, puckering up, blowing bubble
gum bubbles, sipping through a straw, etc. and their speech will be
difficult to understand. My husband has it, and so does my 10 year old. It
is called Speech Apraxia, and my belief (after several years of speech
therapy) is that, with time, the physiological connections will come. I
think my daughter's years of speech therapy were...I hate to say wasted,
but...wasted time and money, which also put her through a bit of sadness
about herself, as young as four years of age, thinking she must be stupid to
need lessons to talk. If I could do it again, I would not put her through
that.
Her speech did get clearer, and her grammar cleared up, too. All around the
same time, after two years of twice weekly therapy sessions...and the
grammar cleared up AFTER we quit therapy, without one single "grammar
lesson." Of course, I can't know this for sure, but I know that her grammar
corrected itself without anyone teaching her, and I wonder (and I think I'm
right) if her speech wouldn't have come around eventually without the
therapy, if I hadn't got into a panic about it, when she was three. My mil
told me, she had my hubby in speech therapy when he was a kid, but they
pulled him out and it corrected itself. Except...he is still sometimes hard
to understand. My little girl has some speech habits that are "different"
which have actually gotten comments from people wanting to know what accent
she has. But she is understandable.
And, she's 10 and her reading is coming quite slowly, but it IS coming
along. My hubby was a late reader, too. Your daughter being six is nothing,
believe me. Expect her to read when her neurons have connected and she's
ready, not when the schools say she should be.
Blessings, HeidiC who has been a panicked mother regarding verbal skills.
>I have always felt that the muscles in her mouth/brain connection
>don't jive. Because when she concentrates she can say the difficult
>sounds. It takes practice though, and she gets better
>with "exercising" the mouth with that sound.
>
>Tracy
Tracy
***the physiological connections will come. I
think my daughter's years of speech therapy were...I hate to say
wasted,
but...wasted time and money, which also put her through a bit of
sadness
about herself, as young as four years of age, thinking she must be
stupid to
need lessons to talk. If I could do it again, I would not put her
through
that.***
You see Heidi,...this is why I came *here* to discuss these things.
THANK YOU. You write what my gut tells me every single day. I don't
know if there are different degrees of Apraxia...I need to do some
research on it - perhaps that is all that it is.
I have felt all along that sending her to speech therapy would be
inappropriate for her personality. I know this child and I know that
she would feel horribly isolated going to a school or office, to a
special room, to learn to talk "properly". I have suggested it to her
a couple times and really wish that I could take it back. At first she
thought it meant going to school (which she was all-for BTW...she is
one child that thinks she's missing out on "something" not going to
school...) until I explained that there would not be playmates there.
Of course she changed her mind. But I think that even that suggestion
(once or twice) may have impacted her to some degree.
One time, when she was 3 1/2 I took her to the YMCA and let her stay
in the babysitting room while I went swimming. When I picked her up
she was irritable and bothered (much like she was after I would pick
her up after preschool those 6 weeks that she attended). I aksed her
what was wrong and she said that the kids kept asking her what her
name was, "they wouldn't hear me!" she kept saying. I felt so bad
because I knew it was that they couldn't understand her name
("Jocelyn" isn't entirely common anyway). So we talked about it and I
told her that she should just say that "people call me Joc" since it
was easier to say. After that I became very aware of the whole, *whats
your name* moments and she'd look to me for back up. I tried to always
only respond if she wanted me to.
We just watched home videos from that time period yesterday. In 2.5
years she's come a very, very long way. So it will only get better.
think my daughter's years of speech therapy were...I hate to say
wasted,
but...wasted time and money, which also put her through a bit of
sadness
about herself, as young as four years of age, thinking she must be
stupid to
need lessons to talk. If I could do it again, I would not put her
through
that.***
You see Heidi,...this is why I came *here* to discuss these things.
THANK YOU. You write what my gut tells me every single day. I don't
know if there are different degrees of Apraxia...I need to do some
research on it - perhaps that is all that it is.
I have felt all along that sending her to speech therapy would be
inappropriate for her personality. I know this child and I know that
she would feel horribly isolated going to a school or office, to a
special room, to learn to talk "properly". I have suggested it to her
a couple times and really wish that I could take it back. At first she
thought it meant going to school (which she was all-for BTW...she is
one child that thinks she's missing out on "something" not going to
school...) until I explained that there would not be playmates there.
Of course she changed her mind. But I think that even that suggestion
(once or twice) may have impacted her to some degree.
One time, when she was 3 1/2 I took her to the YMCA and let her stay
in the babysitting room while I went swimming. When I picked her up
she was irritable and bothered (much like she was after I would pick
her up after preschool those 6 weeks that she attended). I aksed her
what was wrong and she said that the kids kept asking her what her
name was, "they wouldn't hear me!" she kept saying. I felt so bad
because I knew it was that they couldn't understand her name
("Jocelyn" isn't entirely common anyway). So we talked about it and I
told her that she should just say that "people call me Joc" since it
was easier to say. After that I became very aware of the whole, *whats
your name* moments and she'd look to me for back up. I tried to always
only respond if she wanted me to.
We just watched home videos from that time period yesterday. In 2.5
years she's come a very, very long way. So it will only get better.