The school speech pathologist is thinking my 5th grader has a problem with the physical aspect of talking. I was told previously that child’s speech was pretty much understandable a couple years ago. I was also told that it was the ear infections that had her dropping the last sounds. “Stubbed” is one of the words she has a problem with saying fluently that has the speech pathologist thinking it is apraxia. So, I am assuming they will do excersizes for that, but I am wondering about her fluency program. In the Read Naturally computer program we started at level 3 and went to level 2 and am wondering if the wpm goal should be lowered so she passes. In otherwords should I not expect to much in her fluency in reading and just make sure she makes some improvement. She had been on the same story for a while because she hadn’t passed the wpm goal. On level 2.5 the wmp was 75 with 5 errors so teacher placed her on level 2 to see if she could meet the goal. Her last year comprehension score was 3.5.
Re: Could it be apraxia affecting reading?
My child never had problems chewing or swallowing. She usually confuses a & e in her spelling but once I read the word she seems to be able to hear the difference. She also usually forgets the silent e in her spelling but once she hears what the word is she changes it. When she reads orally she usually leaves off endings or adds endings. That is where most of her errors are.I am starting over going over sounds with her again with”Check and Double Check” and the “Lexia SOS” hoping to get it more automatic. She did get braces this year, maybe that is affecting her ability to say “stubbed”.
does she have one of those bite wideners or expanders?
What you are describing is phonological in nature not apraxia. I think yoiu answered your own question…the braces have lot to do with it. Also we notice when kids have bite plates or those expanders this tends to mess up their articulation as well.
Fluency
First, you want to be working on fluency at the student’s instructional reading level—or where they are 93-96% accurate in word recognition and decoding. If that is 2nd grade, fine. If not, go to the level that is appropriate. (When working with groups of students, one of the problems with RN is that one must purchase so many levels in order to be assured of getting the correct one.)
In the case of students with true apraxia problems, I have been advised to go back raise the word recognition bar even higher and go to the place where the student is automatic (word recognition at 98% or higher). Then measure fluency. A child with apraxia will be a slow reader even when they know all the words.
Re: Could it be apraxia affecting reading?
It sounds like she really isn’t at her fluent-decoding-level yet — the acid test would be seeing whether she could read easier passages faster. If she is just as slow reading something very, very easy (after several times) then the physical task is the limiting factor and you should lower the speed. But if she can get fluent with stuff she can smoothly decode, then sounds like she needs more practice with the decoding before fluency practice will do what it’s supposed to do instead of just being decoding practice that’s more frustrating because she is supposed to go fast.
This is not to say she shouldn’t be reading anytyhing at that level — read more challenging things with her, to her, etc. But fluency really can’t happen until you know the moves, any more than I’m ready to get fluent with gymnastics or tae kwon do moves.
Or do you mean decoding words in general? If she is having problems with decoding and the sound symbol relationship that could be due to the auditory processing issues. Also some kids are misdiagnosed with Apraxia, which is a motor planning problem, i.e., (how she moves her articulators to produce a sound)
From what you have described she has more of a phonological processing issue not a motor planning issue as she is having a hard time hearing the sounds in language correctly due to ear infections. The SLP can work on her sound productions by having your dd watch her as she produces the sounds correctly and have her attempt to make them the same way. The next step would be for the SLP to produce the sounds incorrectly and see if your dd can hear and see the differences between a correct and incorrect production. Most of the times if the child can hear the differences they can usually produce the sounds correctly. Does she have any problems with chewing, can she stick her tongue out and back in, move it from side to side, what about saying the sounds puh, tuh, kuh in rapid succession, or any other problems with swallowing, or productions of any other sounds? If not, then I think she has more of a phonological processing issue and not Apraxia.