[tri-med] Re: [tri-family] Re: mental retardation (Karen)

----- Original Message -----
From: <ARDREY@xxxxxxx>
>> I got about 25 responses from
> the Apraxia list but only one (from you) from the Trisomy list.  Kind of
> disappointing 'cause I figured many Trisomy kids would be affected by
Apraxia

Personally I think its a two fold problem. Firstly I think that quite a few
of out triers have never attempted to vocalise so communication by speech is
not an issue at this point. And secondly I think that quite a few of our
kids probably do have apraxia but it isn't diagnosed as such, sometimes
because of the degree of dysarthria that is also present. Alex's current
speech therapist doesn't believe that children who have a cognitive delay
suffer from apraxia and so didn't want Alex diagnosed with it. We received
the diagnosis from a private speech pathologist who I (and his current
therapist) respect.

This is why I rabbited on a bit about looking past the trisomy diagnosis and
dealing with the individual issues.....

>>Of course she would not speculate on his level of cognitive
> functioning, saying that it is usually not completely evident until a
child
> is in the second grade.

That is true and mirrors what our developmental ped feels. Alex was only
tested at my request because I had such strong suspicions that his lack of
speech was NOT due to a cognitive delay and I was getting heavy pressure to
be more "realistic" and accept that he did have a cognitive delay......
Instead what I have proven is that his scores were artificially low because
of his poor communication skills - not the other way around.

Good Luck with it all sweet!!!!!!!!

Ask questions from your heart and you will be answered from the heart.
     -- Omaha Proverb

Keep Looking for Rainbows!!!
Karen, Mum to Alex (6, T-18 mosaic)
Sydney, Australia
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens
http://www.trisomyonline.org

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

Other related posts: