Childhood apraxia of speech

GrowingUp

Wed, Oct 13 2021, 1:41 pm

Two of my kids have it (now 6 yr old and 4 yr old). Both got evaluated at around age 3 because people couldn’t understand a word they said. I understood maybe 70%…

BH my 6 yr old has almost perfect speech after 3+ years of speech therapy. She now goes once a week (with daily practice at home).

My 4 yr old still needs a lot of work, but he’s doing well in school and has lots of friends bH! I anticipate he’ll need another year or two of speech therapy.

Don’t be nervous, it’s a lot of work and a lot of practicing, but it’s very treatable!! Good for you for catching it early!

miami85

Wed, Oct 13 2021, 2:28 pm

My 10 year-old was diagnosed before he turned 2, we've had intense speech therapy since then, only really tapering off this year somewhat due to stingy insurance. He's come a long way and can mostly talk but he gets shy and doesn't like to talk around strangers. He struggles with studying and staying focused/organized. I think his Apraxia is more "global" and affects his overall motor planning which has lead to a diagnosis of ADHD (Executive Functioning) because he also gets very emotional and impulsive.

amother

Wed, Oct 13 2021, 2:37 pm

miami85 wrote:

Is this something insurance covers? I've been paying through my nose...

miami85

Wed, Oct 13 2021, 3:10 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Is this something insurance covers? I've been paying through my nose...

Depends where you live and what insurance you have. When we lived in NY he was able to get speech therapy through school 3x a week--it was kind of "meh" because the SLP was not specially trained to work with CAS so his progress was very slow, but my insurance in NY did NOT allow for speech through insurance. Now we live in a different state and in a different my local school district we can get speech therapy in the school 3x a month--which is nothing and I think it's done in a group setting which is good for the communication and social language but he's still missing sounds, so last year while school was closed and he wasn't getting anything I reached out to an online provider who deals with CAS and during the height of the pandemic we got a really good rate, but then in Jan 2021 he wanted us to go through insurance (though they gave us a deal b/c I have a high deductible) and my insurance maxes out at 45 sessions per year, so now we'r paying completely out of pocket (using whatever FSA money we've put away) so we've cut down to 1-2 times per month (which during the summer and yom tov was fine) until next year when we're going to do once a week. Our SLP who deals with different insurance companies said that MOST companies will allow for an appeal if there's really a need--mine does not, we tried (which is horrendous b/c 45 is not even once a week)