Life, Interrupted: My thoughts on an article about the trials of parenting a child with Mild Cerebral Palsy

What do these words mean?

Apraxia of speech is a neurogenic speech disorder characterized by sensorimotor problems in positioning and sequencing the correct sounds of a word. Apraxia is not caused by muscle weakness of neuromuscular slowness. Individuals with apraxia of speech may have difficulty saying what they would like to say.

Augmentative and Alternative Communitcation (AAC) is any device, system or method that improves the ability of a child with communication impairment to communicate effectively. Although AAC is often used to refer to formal communication devices and systems such as sign language, communication boards or voice output communication aids (VOCAs), it can include less sophisticated means of communication such as facial expressions, non-speech vocalizations, idiosyncratic gestures, etc. AAC is used when a child does not develop communication in the normal fashion, or experiences a significant delay in its development. AAC is not merely a substitute for how the child is currently communicating. It is used to augment that communication, replacing only elements that are unintelligible, socially unacceptable, or harmful to the child or others. Ideally, an AAC system includes more than one mode of communication, with the child using whichever is the most efficient given the persons, setting and activity at hand. Very often one of the modes of communication in an AAC program is natural speech.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder is the impaired ability to attend, discriminate, recognize or comprehend auditory information even though hearing and intelligence are within normal limits. Symptoms of Central Auditory Processing Disorder include but are not limited to:1. Individual easily distracted or bothered by loud noises.2. Individual is upset in noisy environments.3. Individual’s performance improves in quieter enviornments.4. Individual has difficulty following simple and complex commands.5. Individual has difficulties with reading, spelling and writing.6. Individual is disorganized.7. Individual has difficulty following conversations.

Phonological processes are techniques used by children to simplify speech when attempting to produce adult words. The phonological processes include:

Deletion of Final ConsonantsExample: cup becomes cu Syllable ReductionExample: telephone becomes telphoneStoppingExample: soup becomes doupGlidingExample: blue becomes bueExample:chair becomes tairVoicingExample: cup becomes gupExample: fishing becomes bishingDeaffricationExample: chair becomes thairExample: orange becomes orandDevoicingExample: frog becomes frokExample: bathtub becomes bathtupFrontingExample: car becomes tarExample: wagon becomes wadon

Phonological Awareness refers to the awareness of the sound structure of language. It is the ability to manipulate and think about the structure of language. Phonological awareness is the knowledge that words are made from sounds. This can affect the following:

1. Syllabification and rhyming as discussed above are the first skills2. Blending sounds into words such as “f--i---sh” is “fish”3. Isolating the beginning or ending sounds in a word i.e. “fish” starts with “f” “boat” ends with “t” 4. Segmenting words into sounds i.e. “what sounds are in the word ‘dish’-d—i—sh”5. Deleting the beginning or ending sound and telling what word remains i.e. “say ‘beat’ now say it again without the ‘b’---eat

Language is used for talking to and with others, to signal needs, intentions, feelings, and thoughts. Language is also used for self-talking (thinking), and for controlling and directing one's own behavior as well as for controlling and directing the behavior of others. It involves the understanding and use of words and word combinations.

Children with autism and related disorders exhibit deficits in social-communication skills such as language, imitation, emotion sharing, play, and social interaction skills. In addition, they also may have some associated behavioral difficulties such as aggression, severe tantrums, difficulty with transitions, self-stimulatory behavior and may exhibit delayed cognitive or self-help skills. When a child has a confirmed or possible diagnosis of autism, the family plays an especially key role in their child's treatment program. We work together with families to support their child's social-communication, behavioral and emotional growth.

Oral motor skills refers to how articulators such as the tongue, lips and muscles of the face work together to produce effective movements. Oral motor skills affect controlling saliva secretions, eating, drinking and speaking.

A language disorder is the impairment in the ability to understand and/or use words in context, both verbally and nonverbally. Some characteristics of language disorders include improper use of words and their meanings, inability to express ideas, inappropriate grammatical patterns, reduced vocabulary and inability to follow directions. One or a combination of these characteristics may occur in children who are affected by language learning disabilities or developmental language delay. Children may hear or see a word but not be able to understand its meaning. They may have trouble getting others to understand what they are trying to communicate. An evaluation will identify your child's difficulty understanding and/or using language. Therapy will help your child learn to use language appropriately and accurately.

In the beginning

It started with a perfect pregnancy, labor was slow, and finally they gave enough petocin to birth a horse. 18 hours after my water broke, they used forceps and my son was born. 41 1/2 weeks. My son was in fetal distress for a long long time and nobody did anything about it until it was too late. He had neonatal seizures and had a 10 day stay in the NICU. He was referred straight into the Birth to 3 program and was in Physical Therapy at age 5 weeks. Now he has severe brain damage but is doing phenomenally well all things considered as a direct result of the Early Intervention Program.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

My thoughts on an article about the trials of parenting a child with Mild Cerebral Palsy

http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/cerebral_palsy/mildcp.html#Milner
It is a nice article regarding both the trials and tribulations of children with mild CP. In the name of being completely honest, I have to admit thinking at the end of the article "If only I were that lucky to have such problems!" While my son is able to walk, (walk fast in an attempt to run)he can use a fork (prefers to use hands and can't close his mouth at all in the chewing process, but that might just be genetics) I consider myself and my son unbelieveably lucky. At least today I do, don't know what tomorrow brings. If anyone wants diagnoses, I can name a few...C.P., HIE, Epilepsy, Autism, Coordination Disorder, Visual ProcessingDisorder, Low tone, Phonetic Processing Disorder, Aphasia, Verbal and OralMotor Apraxia, Sensory Integration Disorder, hummm.... I am sure I can comeup with more if you give me a minute. Yet, today I consider myself fortunate because my son only had one temporal lobe seizure lasting less than 5 minutes of visual hallucinations according to his teacher. I am not angry with the mom that complains her child has difficulty brushing her long hair. I just think "then why the heck don't you cut it??" Then I think back to a conversation I had with a very dear friend of mine from HighSchool. The moral of the story sums it up. This friend was a "trust fund" kid and came from a fortune 400 family. At the age of 25, this guy was to inherit at least 25 million US dollars back in the early 90's when that was a HUGE amount of money before all the dot commers and Bill Gates Kadrilliondollar fortune. He complained at length about his slightly older brother(maybe 20 at the time) went out and purchased a car he had planned on buyingupon his 18th birthday when he was to come into a couple of million dollars. I still remember it, a Lotus Esprit Turbo. I was completely unable to relate to such "problems". While I was fortunate enough to never want for anything, the word trust and fund were never used in congunction with each other in my house either was the word inheritance except when referring to the hand me down clothes that are apart of all normal families. At the time, my dear friend said in his defense "Just because you can't relate specifically to my problems doesn't mean they don't affect me. Betrayal and hurt by any othername is still betrayal and hurt. We all have our own set of problems regardless of financial independence..etc etc etc." So, on that note, I am sorry this particular author feels such angst and worry. I too feel those feelings. Yet in an obscure way,this particular article makes me take note of what I do have...My son walks, he can eat, he is not reliant on a respirator, feeding tube, wheelchair etc. I don't worry about "if he will have difficulties in the future." I know he will. I just try to live my day today making sure I give him the love and affection and support he needs to make him able to develop enough self esteem and confidence that these trials he WILL endure won't overwhelm him. Hey, that is my feeling today, can't sayI will be so optimistic tomorrow. Let's see how many halluninatory seizures he has, how many complete outbursts he has, how many poopy diapers I have tochange etc.. I am only human too, as we all are.

Life, Interrupted

What do these words mean?

In the beginning

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

My thoughts on an article about the trials of parenting a child with Mild Cerebral Palsy

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