Apraxia Speech Therapist Recs in Fairfax County?

[Anonymous]

I'm reeling from my son's oral apraxia diagnosis. Want to make sure I get him a great, experienced (with apraxia) speech therapist. Any recommendations? Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Children's Speech and Language in Springfield! The train others in PROMPT

[Anonymous]

I second that - their office is amazing.

[Anonymous]

I third it. DS did PROMPT there for 4 years. Graduated a year ago. He loved his SLP, and she was amazing with him.

[Anonymous]

Fourth it, but we go in falls chruch

[Anonymous]

Prompt training is totally key.

[Anonymous]

Apraxia is massively overdiagnosed and really applies to stroke victims. If you kid is under 3 I would wait and see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apraxia is massively overdiagnosed and really applies to stroke victims. If you kid is under 3 I would wait and see.

I had a daughter with Childhood Apraxia of speech. It was fairly obvious she had it because she had a very hard time sucking and eating as a baby. Early intervention is critical with Apraxia. If you think the diagnosis is real, ignore the PP and start immediately. Do not miss any sessions. Do all the homework. DD was doing speech therapy 4 days a week. The cost was breath taking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apraxia is massively overdiagnosed and really applies to stroke victims. If you kid is under 3 I would wait and see.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Another vote for Children's Speech and Language Services http://cslstherapy.com/ (we've done both locations). We suspected our DS had apraxia when he was 2.5 and it was confirmed at 3. We worked with a lot of talented SLPs but he didn't really make much progress until after he started working with a PROMPT certified SLP. Even then, progress was slow but there was progress. For a long time, he received 30 minutes of therapy 2x week because he didn't have the stamina for a full session. He's now in a 'social speech' group at CSLS because he needs facilitated practice with communication in less structured environments. His speech tends to break down in spontaneous situations and he also needs to learn techniques/skills/approaches when he has problems following conversations - especially those not of his choosing (think about how hard it is for you to follow a conversation in a foreign language you don't fully understand and you have an idea of why it's easy for him to zone out during group/peer conversations).

I've never seen anyone asserting that apraxia is 'massively' overdiagnosed' and only applicable to stroke victims. The only kids I've met with apraxia have been in SLP waiting rooms - unlike kids with ADHD, ASD, MERLD, other kinds of develomental delays/disorders. I also have an older DS who had a speech delay and was diagnosed with MERLD. The speech/communication challenges of the two boys were completely different. It was obvious that younger DS had something else going on besides run of the mill MERLD (which he was diagnosed with in addition to the apraxia).

[Anonymous]

I think they're pretty careful about handing out the diagnosis. I don't think it's odd that even if it is "rare" there would be multiple people on here with it. Things like Asd are relatively "rare" and many posted on here have children with Asd.

[Anonymous]

It is often over diagnosed. And it is best to wait til after 3 to officially label it. But absolutely start therapy before then if there are concerns! Even if it's just articulation problems and not actually apraxia, therapy can help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[b]It is often over diagnosed. And it is best to wait til after 3 to officially label it. But absolutely start therapy before then if there are concerns! Even if it's just articulation problems and not actually apraxia, therapy can help.

Source? And why is it' best' to wait until after three to 'label' it?

[Anonymous]

We see Amanda at the Falls Church office of CSLS. She's been great and they take our Kaiser insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[b]It is often over diagnosed. And it is best to wait til after 3 to officially label it. But absolutely start therapy before then if there are concerns! Even if it's just articulation problems and not actually apraxia, therapy can help.

Source? And why is it' best' to wait until after three to 'label' it?

From ASHA:
PRPSpecificTopic.aspx?folderid=8589935338§ion=Assessment#Diagnosing_CAS


Diagnosing CAS

Diagnosis Under 3 Years Of Age

Diagnosis of CAS in children under 3 is challenging for a variety of reasons, including

the potential presence of developmental disabilities and/or comorbid conditions;
the lack of a single validated list of diagnostic features that differentiates CAS from other types of childhood speech sound disorders (e.g., those due to phonological-level deficits or neuromuscular disorder);
the fact that some primary characteristics of CAS (e.g., word inconsistency, a predominant error pattern of omission, etc.) are characteristic of emerging speech in typically developing children under the age of 3 years;
the lack of a sufficient speech sample size for making a more definitive diagnosis;
the challenge of sorting out inability versus unwillingness to provide a speech sample or to attempt a speech target;
the possibility that changes occurring prior to age 3 (e.g., developmental maturation, social and linguistic peer exposure, and beneficial effects of therapy) may alter the diagnostic label.
Preliminary research using retrospective analyses of home videos suggests some early indicators of CAS below the age of 3 (Overby & Caspari, 2012, 2013). However, given the preliminary nature of these data and the need for more research (e.g., longitudinal studies from infancy), diagnosis below age 3 is best categorized under a provisional diagnostic classification, such as "CAS cannot be ruled out," "signs are consistent with problems in planning the movements required for speech," or "suspected to have CAS."