stuttering apraxic

From: Lisa Geng
Date: 10/22/01
Time: 5:20:53 PM
Remote Name: 24.191.170.29

Comments

This is a message that I just posted to our nonprofit's grouplist today. When someone let me know about this online conference-I wanted to share this here to hear your thoughts! I'll also enclose a recent Press Release so that you will understand my reference to EFA (and what that means!)

Subject: stuttering apraxic

I know I've brought up dysfluency (or stuttering) before-and since most of you didn't respond, I thought it was something that most of you in this group are not dealing with...or not dealing with yet. But because I have talked and emailed with some of you privately about this -I wanted to bring this up again in hopes that more of you will feel it's OK to talk about. Any speech challenges are not off topic to our group!

I'm not sure of the exact connection-if any-between apraxia and dysfluency, but when you read up on the neurological motor planning challenges of stuttering...sounds like there is a bit of overlap. My five year old apraxic son Tanner's SLP does feel that a connection is possible, but of course no one knows yet. As children with apraxia are beginning to progress faster speech wise than before because of EFA -some strong stuttering or apraxia "facts" may have to be revaluated. Not all the stuttering or dysfluent children with apraxia were on EFA supplementation-but all of the apraxic children were at the point where they were trying and starting to put together sentences.

As Suzanne says, "Once you reach the stuttering stage that's a good thing because at least they are talking!"

With Tanner-he has progressed incredibly with therapy and EFAs (first Efalex and now ProEFA) However, Tanner went through a stuttering (or dysfluency) stage that started when he was 4 years old which was painful - for us more than him. I found that ignoring the stuttering (for that whole painful year) and talking v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w and waiting and waiting for him to finish a thought...he didn't improve at all.

As I wrote in an August 2, 2001 post, Tanner's speech therapist Michelle Orgeta MA CCC/SLP started using (experimentally for the stuttering) something used by OTs called "therapeutic listening" and the change has been amazing -Tanner is fluent most of the time now.

Now, with therapeutic listening and with "direct approaches" to stuttering-Tanner is fluent! I actually found this stuttering research article online and starting trying this "direct" approach- and found it to work amazingly well! When Tanner gets "bumpy" speech now-I just say the word "smooth" and Tanner repeats it without dysfluency! This is the link http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/comdis/ISAD3/papers/cordes.html

The main page to this site is http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/comdis/ISAD3/isadcon3.html where you can read all the lectures and the kids page where they post, etc.

Tanner's story is online at http://www.apraxia.cc or in the LCP Solution book or online at http://www.drstordy.com/stories.html -and who you can hear speaking at http://www.debtsmart.com/talk/tanner.html

Our secretary Stacey, told us at the last CHERAB meeting that her four year old apraxic son Evan, who was on ProEFA and has been doing amazing as many of you know, began to stutter. She took Evan off of Pro EFA and the stuttering he had developed stopped within a week. That was good.. but what was very bad was that along with the stuttering went his clarity in speech and attempts at talking! Stacey was devastated that Evan, once again, seemed "very apraxic" Once back on ProEFA again, Evan is again speaking well-the stuttering is back a bit, but Stacey doesn't mind it as much this time because she is convinced something in the ProEFA is helping Evan and says "I'm a believer now!"

As Dr. Katz says we need clinical research to understand and know why these things are happening-but isn't this exciting that we may be on the way to finally really understanding something that has been around for ages?! But maybe the links between apraxia and stuttering aren't that new...

Speech Motor Exercises Applying Motor Learning Principles to Stuttering and Apraxia David A. Daly, Jeanna Riley and Glyndon Riley (2000) "A practical and innovative program that has emerged from the authors' combined clinical experiences in applying motor learning principles to the treatment of stuttering, apraxia, and other speech disorders."

hmmmm. Rhonda, any thoughts?

===== Lisa Geng President CHERAB Foundation Communication Help, Education, Research, Apraxia Base http://www.apraxia.cc http://groups.yahoo.com/group/childrensapraxianet 908-626-KIDS 732-871-6013 VM "Help give our cherubs a voice and a smile"

Subject: Look Who's Talking Now

Look Who's Talking Now: Fish oil capsules help children with speech disorders find their voices

A simple fish oil supplement may be the key to dramatically unlock the voices of children with speech and language disorders.

That's the conclusion of a group of scientists who reviewed a study of nineteen youngsters suffering from various speech problems. The children, ranging in age from two and a half years to eight years, were given a fish oil supplement containing a mixture of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFAs). Speech-language pathologists who monitored the children reported significant improvements within just a few weeks. The improvements were noted not only in the children's ability to talk, but also in their behavior, ability to focus, and in maintaining eye contact.

Now the scientists, brought together by the CHERAB Foundation, a major nonprofit group for children with speech disorders, are calling for a double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to validate these initial findings.

"The results were dramatic," says developmental pediatrician Marilyn C. Agin, M.D., medical director of the New Jersey-based foundation, who also reported similar results in ten anecdotal cases under her care. "They strongly suggest that EFA supplementation combined with speech and occupational therapy could become the treatment of choice in multifaceted communication disorders -including autism and apraxia."

Until now children with severe speech disorders such as apraxia, a neurologically-based condition, have required years of intensive one- on-one therapy-often with painfully slow progress. "But now, with EFA supplementation together with therapy, the future for these children may be much brighter-and sooner rather than later," says Lori L. Roth, M.S., CCC/SLP, a speech pathologist with the CHERAB foundation.

The amazing potential of EFA supplementation came to light when the nonprofit group's president, Lisa Geng, used it with her non-verbal three-year-old son, Tanner. After just three weeks his vocabulary exploded. "It was the breakthrough we had been praying for. It was incredible," says Lisa.

Why does this supplementation look promising? Experts believe that the speech disorders are the result of a breakdown in communication between the brain and the muscles in the larynx, mouth, tongue and jaw that have to work together to produce speech. Essential fatty acids, especially the omega-3 DHA and the omega-6 ARA, are highly necessary for brain development. Most children obtain them-during the most critical times of brain development-directly from their mothers while they are still in the womb and subsequently while being breast- fed. Any deficiency can result in permanent neurodevelopmental deficits in the growing infant.

"Therefore under one scenario, essential fatty acid supplementation in neurodevelopmental speech disorders could correct a specific deficit in the speech center of the central nervous system. Under a different scenario, EFA supplementation could enhance the functioning of proteins expressed by defective genes involved in speech and language production" says Robert Katz, Ph.D., CHERAB's director of EFA research.

The panel of experts who reviewed the study included scientists from the NIH, Johns Hopkins University, Kennedy Krieger Institute, University of Kansas, and Oxford University, England.

For more information contact: CHERAB FOUNDATION COMMUNICATION HELP, EDUCATION, RESEARCH, APRAXIA BASE 657 Valley Road Box 339 Gillette, NJ 07933, U.S.A. Tel.: 908-626-KIDS; VM: 732-871-6013; Web site http://www.apraxia.cc Grouplist http://groups.yahoo.com/group/childrensapraxianet