Our speech therapist recently told us that she feels Dougie may have a condition called apraxia. The link below explains the condition as well as answers some other questions.
FAQ About Childhood Apraxia
At this point, we cannot confirm a diagnosis because Dougie doesn't have sufficient language. Regardless, if he does have it, he is not severe. Our therapist strongly believes that we should be able to move past it with continued therapy as well as practice at home. We are changing our therapy a little bit to increase focus on sound groupings and less on learning new words.
In exciting news, we think we managed to get Dougie into the special group speech therapy we had been wait listed for. We are going for an evaluation on Monday morning but, at this point, we have no reason to believe he won't be able to get into the program.
The program is preschool-like with a focus on language development. It is offered through the Callier Center who are run through the University of Texas at Dallas. Here is the description of the program:
SmILE (Small-group Intervention for Language Emergence)
This group program is designed to facilitate language development in young children. The curriculum is organized by content themes in preschool routines that are utilized to provide intensive language intervention and social skills development. The program is led by a certified, licensed speech-language pathologist with the support of graduate student clinicians.
Everyone I have spoken to who knows anything about the center has told me how wonderful it is. This will be a great addition to Dougie's therapy and should really help move him along.
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