Do you remember these little birds? They are whistles. You fill them up with water, then when you blow they make a sweet little chirping sound. They make great oral motor toys. I am always on the hunt for new ideas. This was a really good find. We all enjoy these funny little birds.
Luke couldn't resist drinking the water and dumping it out.
It really sounds like a birdie.
It’s easy to make puzzles and peg boards more challenging by incorporating a great big ball. Luke’s OT has him complete activities while working on his balance and coordination. It’s tricky, but he’s usually up for the task!
These are great little speech toys. If you ever watch Nancy Kaufman work, she likes the wind ups. We started our collection when we started speech. Practice words, get fun little rewards. When I attended the Nancy Kaufman Apraxia conference she talked about finding your child’s to-die-for items. Finding things that really motivate them. Favorites. When we first started speech it would break my heart that Luke would have to work for the toys he wanted to play with. Really though they quickly learn what they have to try to get what they want.
'Agnes Galt?' Big single pink flowers
Listen to some of these names;
‘All Aglow’ -gold blotched orange petals, ‘American Beauty’-Broad deep rose flowers, ‘Bridal Veil’- Large pure white single flowers, ‘Butterfly’-Small, single bright yellow flowers, ‘Diamond Head’-Large double flowers in deepest red, almost black, ‘Red Dragon’- Medium double dark red, ‘Morning Glory’- Single blush pink changing to warmer pink with white petal tips, ‘Kona’- Ruffled double pink flower.
'Full Moon' Double pure yellow flowers- Notice all of the stem is yellow
'Hula Girl'-Large single canary yellow flowers deep red eye
I guess this was just a little Hibiscus lesson for myself . Thanks to sunset garden My dream would be to have all the different varieties. I also wanted to share these pictures of an artichoke farm we went by on our way camping. I have never seen anything like this. It’s all you could see for about a mile out. I think it was close to pickin’ time. The kids yelled from the motor home, “Grab one!” but I couldn’t do that.
O.K, so the little story. Yesterday, I ran up to Target to get Luke some M & M’s. Potty training is in full effect. When we were checking out. Luke was going on and on talking about his MM’s, and Pa-teee, and no pee-pee on ta-ta (Thomas undies), carrying on and on. The young girl at the check out counter interrupted him and said, ‘Oh my, little man, you are quite the talker!” Luke stopped dead in his tracks. We both looked at each other and started smiling. Right then a million thoughts ran through my head. I was going to explain why that comment meant so much to us. But all I could do was smile and say, “Thank You! You just made our day.” And we all walked out.
That was a moment for me an Apraxia mommy…..
I share this story with you not to brag about Luke all the time. I know happy stories can make other people feel sad sometimes. But I just wanted to encourage you that speech will come. Sometimes it takes a long time. The odds are in our favor! Keep the Faith, Don’t give up!
♥ If I knew how to make this post light up, flash, or blink I would! Another Apraixa mommy sent it to me this morning….
Scientist First to Characterize Novel Syndrome of Allergy, Apraxia, Malabsorption
Newswise - A landmark study conducted by Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is the first to reveal a new syndrome in children that presents with a combination of allergy, apraxia and malabsorption. Autism spectrum disorders were variably present. Verbal apraxia has until now been understood to be a neurologically based speech disorder, although hints of other neurological soft signs have been described. The new study, led by Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland scientist and pediatric emergency medicine physician, Claudia Morris, MD, and Marilyn C. Agin, MD, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician at Saint Vincent Medical Center in New York, however, suggests that the symptoms of verbal apraxia are, at least for a sub-group of children, part of a larger, multifactorial, neurologic syndrome involving food allergies/gluten-sensitivity and nutritional malabsorption.
“While it is critical to treat verbal apraxia symptoms that often include severe delays in expressive speech production with speech therapy, we need to start asking why these kids are having these problems in the first place so that we can identify mechanisms we can actually target to treat the cause of the symptoms,” says Dr. Morris.
Published in the July/August issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, the new study takes a major step toward identifying the potential mechanisms that may contribute to apraxia symptoms. In the study, Dr. Morris collected information from nearly 200 families with children who suffered from verbal apraxia in order to better characterize the symptoms and metabolic anomalies of a subset of children. The data clearly demonstrated a common cluster of allergy, apraxia and malabsorption, along with low muscle tone, poor coordination and sensory integration abnormalities. In addition, Dr. Morris was able to gather laboratory analyses in 26 of the children, which revealed low carnitine levels, abnormal celiac panels, gluten sensitivity, and vitamin D deficiency among others. All children genetically screened carried an HLA gene associated with gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. “The sample size is still small and should be interpreted with caution,” says Dr. Morris. “However this is of particular interest given the recent publication by Eaton and colleagues in the July 6 online edition of Pediatrics demonstrating a greater than 3-fold risk of autism in children born to mothers diagnosed with celiac disease. This brings some credibility to the anecdotal reports of gastrointestinal and behavioral improvements in children with autism spectrum disorders and/or verbal apraxia when eliminating gluten from their diets. Although the implications of these observations remain to be determined, this association and the utility of dietary modifications warrant further investigation, particularly if we can identify a genetically vulnerable group”.
Most significantly, the data indicate that the neurologic dysfunction represented in the syndrome overlaps the symptoms of vitamin E deficiency. While low vitamin E bioavailability may occur due to a variety of different causes, neurological consequences are similar, regardless of the initiating trigger. The study suggests that vitamin E could be used as a safe nutritional intervention that may benefit some children. Growing evidence support the benefits of omega 3 fatty acid supplementation in a number of neurodevelopmental disorders. Anecdotally children with verbal apraxia will often demonstrate leaps in their speech production when taking high-quality fish oil. The addition of vitamin E to omega 3 fatty acid supplementation in this cohort of children induced benefits that exceeded those expected from just speech therapy alone, according to parental report.
“While data from a case series is by no means conclusive, the results clearly point to the need for further attention to this poorly understood disorder, and a placebo-controlled study to investigate the potential role of vitamin E and omega 3 supplementation in this group of children,” says Dr. Morris.
She points out that it is equally important for children given an apraxia diagnosis to receive a more comprehensive metabolic evaluation than what is current practice. Many of the nutritional deficiencies like low carnitine, zinc and vitamin D are easily treated. By not addressing the nutritional deficiencies, the child will continue to suffer from significant medical consequences of those deficiencies. The first step is to identify and treat the deficiencies. The next step is to try to figure out why they have these deficiencies and a fat malabsorption syndrome in the first place. However, Dr. Morris does advise families to work closely with a physician rather than trying promising but unproven interventions on their own.
In the mean time, however, Dr. Morris’s study provides the essential foundation for identifying the children who may need these treatments.
“By identifying these early red flags of the syndrome, we’ve provided a way to get these kids treatment at the earliest possible moment. While 75 percent of the time kids identified as late bloomers really are just that, 25 percent of the time there is a true pathologic condition. To miss it is to miss critically valuable time for early intervention. If a child has all these symptoms, chances are they are going to fall into the 25 percent who have a condition that needs further evaluation and treatment.”
About Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is Northern California’s only freestanding and independent children’s hospital. Children’s is the leader in many pediatric specialties including neonatology, cardiology, neurosurgery and intensive care. The hospital is a designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center and has the largest pediatric critical care facility in the region. Children’s Hospital has 190 licensed beds, 201 hospital-based physicians in 30 specialties, more than 2,611 employees and an operating budget of $312 million. Children’s research arm, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, is internationally renowned in bridging state of the art basic science and clinical research for the treatment and prevention of human disease. With about 300 staff members and an annual budget of approximately $50 million, CHORI is ranked among the top ten research institutes in National Institutes of Health funding to children’s hospitals. CHORI is a leader in translational research, providing cures for diseases, developing new vaccines for infectious diseases and discovering new treatment protocols for previously fatal or debilitating conditions such as cancer, sickle cell disease and thalassemia, diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, pediatric obesity, nutritional deficiencies, birth defects, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.
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I have heard of these nutritional and supplemental programs being used for Autistic children. I have always wondered if something like this could help Luke, especially with the past seizures. This totally makes a lot of sense. I am going to call the doctor today. We have to keep searching for answers!
My husband and I went to several speech therapist before finding Lucid Speech and Language. I could never understand why other therapist would not allow parents to remain in the room during a session. How are we suppose to know and understand what kind of things we should be doing at home? Don’t they really want you to get the techniques? Well it is a totally different ball game at Lucid. They have always encouraged us to stay with Luke. I feel it has been the best thing for him. Not only to have a good understanding of things, but also to show him our support. We get to share in the joys of watching his progress.The kids are off school for summer. This has been the perfect chance for them to ride along. His sweet cousin Jenna has kindly taken a couple trips with him. Today Grandma and sissy came with us. Daddy takes him a lot . Last week Preston and Nana came. He loves to show off his big words. We all clap and show him how proud we are of him.
Luke has his own personal entourage!
"OH NO, MORE SPEECH THERAPY!"
Click images to play…
Mickey
Thomas
Nemo
Word world
Pingu
Four different varieties, all super delicious!
he has so many people who love him and support him! Today he made me cry my eyes out. My husband has been trying to help me with the long drive to speech therapy so we’ve been switching off. I was getting everything ready in Paul’s car. I turned to head back inside and little Luke came around the corner. Green striped shirt, hair combed neatly to the side, apple in one hand, chocolate milk in the other. He looked up at me and sweetly said, “Mama, Byeeee.” Puckered up his lips for a kiss. He knew where he was off to. He never complains. He doesn’t have the choice off lounging around in the summer. His work continues every week, everyday, every hour. We practice things all day long. We break words down. We repeat things. We talk real slow. We try to make the words sound right. Sometimes I think he would just like to tell me to be quiet. But he doesn’t. Last week I was trying to help him fix a word. He grabbed my face, said, “Mama” and just held up his I love you sign. Words really cannot describe how this child has changed my life. What a miracle he is. So as I am typing this post, I know he is sitting in the car driving to therapy. I picture his little face. I bet he’s watching Mickey Mouse…
Do good my little man. Mommy loves you more than you will ever know! Mama, Bubba, and Lily will be here waiting for you to get home.
Heard it from a friend. Had to check it out. You can get all kinds of different sand colors from Walmart. Makes for a little more mess outside the box, but so much fun! 
