Well, I was going to use the low score of the pseudoword decoding on the WIAT II to say she needs more help in being automatic in her decoding,but now they are saying the test is only valid when given to children with no neurologically-based motor speech disorders.My child’s apraxia of speech complicates the pseudoword decoding task such that the test is no longer valid. My child’s reading IEP is that she will listen to a taped story at 4.0
and answer literal and inferential comprehension questions and also accurately read a text and answer literal and inferential comprehension questions related to a 3.5 level text and no spelling goal except that she will check her spelling on her essays which is her goal on the writing IEP. This IEP is not going to help her and I doubt I can get them to think she needs decoding if they consider the decoding part invalid..So this is very frustrating has anyone heard of this?!
Re: Help! pseudoword decoding void because of apraxia
You know she still messes up words like sentence sounds like sentenence and hamburger sounds like hangburger.She also says tell him vs ask him.She also says what it is instead of what is it. Used to say cookie when she meant cracker and visa versa. She had a history of ear infections. She also has an awkward pencil grip (grips the pencil with her thumb) So I am not sure if it is apraxia or not, wondered if pencil grip and having braces for overbite would lead that way or not. I guess what I need to know is there another test I should be asking for if they consider this one invalid because of her condition?
Re: Help! pseudoword decoding void because of apraxia
auditory mom,
I have probably told you this before, but that is a very weak IEP and you need to get private testing and recommendations to have a shot at a decent IEP. However, it is doubtful that they know what to do to help her judging from those goals, so I’d advise you to stick with private therapy, which I think you have said you are doing. Most of the things you mentioned are language issues, not articulation.
Janis
it is phonological in nature not true apraxia
Coming from someone who thought cottage cheese was college cheese when I was little… :oops: I still have problems with auditory processing… :lol:
But she is young yet and keep working on the private speech and perhaps she has been unable to say some sounds due to her overbite and constant ear infections…Also do lots of songs and fingerplays with her…all this will build up her weak auditory memory.
:lol:
Re: Help! pseudoword decoding void because of apraxia
I just had a meeting with everyone at school. Speech therapist believes she is 99% correct in apraxia diagnosis. She doesn’t feel my child should be working on fluency with the read naturally program and the decoding doesn’t give a true picture of my child’s ability. The words she missed when I looked at the test were b,d reversal and silent e,so it looked consistent with what she usually missed but some of the responses looked odd and was wondering if the tester heard her wrong.
Present levels: formulated sentences 1 st percentile
Sentenence assembly 5th percentile
Recalling sentences 1st percentile
Synonyms50% of 25 selected grade level appropriate vocabulary words with synonyms
Intelligibility of spontaneous speech rages from 75%-90% depending upon the length of the utterance,length and complexity of the vocabulary & fatigue
(4+syllables) words,terms and phrases give the most trouble. She knows and understands many more words/terms/phrases than her speech clarity will consistently support.
Semantic relationship 1st percentile
word classes 2nd percentile - I felt like I took a giant leap back in helping
my child
Re: Help! pseudoword decoding void because of apraxia
You know, I asked at the meeting if she had done an auditory processing test and she had not. She will be doing one soon, so maybe that will shed some light, although she seems very firm in her decision. Knowing they were going to give me grief on my child’s reading program I mentioned maybe we could get an opinion of a reading specialist who used to be a speech pathologist.She was doing a program a couple years back that was phonics based but my child didn’t do well as I think she needed pictures. I am hoping the school gets a hold of her otherwise the sped director was going to try another reading specialist who may concur with him to ditch the phonics.
maybe she is one of those co-morbid kids
who has motor planning/phonological issues. What intrigues me is that she is 75 to 90% intelligible. The kids who I work with who are apraxic are much less intelligible to me, because they are more severe in their apraxia. But I have seen kids with severe phonological issues get misdiagnosed as apraxic and they weren’t.
Was this with the CELF-4 or 3? Those low scores could also be due to the examiner not being used to testing a child with her difficulties. However, the auditory issues are impacting her speech and language issues. Recalling sentences takes auditory memory, the sentence assembly and formulated sentences takes an understanding of grammar and the structure of language. Word classes and semantic relations examines vocabulary knowledge and if they understand categories, like banana, orange, apple, those are all fruits…hat kind of thing
with her articulation? Or is she one of those kids who was just misdiagnosed as apraxic and actually she has a severe phonological processing deficit? Perhaps the way she heard the sounds made her misarticulate the sounds. Which has now impacted her decoding. She can still have goals on decoding if she is still struggling with an auditory/phonological based deficit. But if she is truely apraxic she will have motor planning issues which will interfere with her articulation of the words but not interfere with her ability to read and decode silently. I hope that made sense. If not just think out loud and let me know if you have any other thoughts..
patti the SLP