Tips To Help Children With Apraxia

Tips To Help Children With Apraxia Communicate:

My nephew has apraxia. It is a condition that does not allow him to speak even though he obviously understands quite a bit. It can be frustrating for him to try to communicate. You can see in his eyes when he recognizes something, but he is not able to say the words.

He has been going to speech therapy, and my sister has been looking for ways to help him, and she had me ask on the Budget Saving Mom Facebook page for tips that people might have.

The responses were amazing. I am actually crying as I am writing this post, because you guys have no idea how much it means to me that I am able to ask stuff like this and get such helpful responses. I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing community on Budget Saving Mom, and I truly appreciate you!

I know that apraxia can be really frustrating for a child, and I figured if there were that many people on the Facebook page who had encountered this, there are probably even more readers that have experienced it. So, I wanted to provide the link to the Facebook discussion. There are some really great tips that might be able to help your family as well. You can go here if you want to read the entire conversation.

Here are a few of the tips to help children with apraxia communicate:

1. Use a white board, and have them draw pictures for things that they need most often. Thanks, Melanie!

2. Baby signing – Thanks, Stephanie, Stephanie, Michelle, Nicole & others

3. Use picture books – Thanks, Stephanie!

4. Label items around the house – Thanks, Stephanie!

5. Making pictures of every day common things like foods, clothing, different play items…then have him point to what he is trying to say. For instance, to give a choice for what he wants for breakfast, show a pic of a waffle, pancake or cereal, and let him point to the one he wants.  - Thanks, Lisa!

6. Signing Time Series – Thanks, Crystal

7. Stimulate his cheeks with different textures and massage his gums. Have him exercise his tongue with lollipops …hold it center front of lips and him lick different directions. – Thanks, Margaret

8. Use laminated flash cards – thanks, Michelle!

9. Use music – (We have noticed that it is much easier for him to sing than speak, so I could see how this would be helpful.) – Thanks, Margaret!

10. Clapping helps split up words that could be hard for him to hear and repeat. – Thanks, Margaret!

11. Cut out pictures from magazines, flash cards, home photos, etc and laminated them put them on magnets and kept all the pictures within her child’s reach so when he wanted a toy he couldn’t reach he took the picture to her and she was able to get it. Same thing with his favorite foods; tv shows; going to bed; bathroom; outside activities; it was really an amazing tools that worked wonders!  - Thanks, Amanda!

12. We did signing and it was AMAZING! We only did about 10 words for everyday things and it helped so much. I also took pics of everyday things like bathroom, bed, clothes, food items, etc and made them small and laminated them. He could then pick a pic to tell me what he wanted or needed.  - Thanks, Kristal!!

There are additional tips and advice on the conversation, and you can find it here! I hope that it helps some of you as well!! Thanks so much to everyone who responded to the conversation on Facebook!