Muda!

Me, "mother", him, "buuuda", "mother".... "bupp"...."mmmmother", "muda"! Yeah!!!!!! me "mother"... him"bupppu". AAH the joys of apraxia. This conversation is actually a lot of progress. When Cotton was about a year old, soon after he lost all language, he started to drool. Not drool like a baby drools, but like a person who has just been given a shot of Novocaine. As you can see from the picture, his entire neck and mouth broke out in a horrible rash. It took us months to get the rash to clear up, and years to get answers.Verbal apraxia affects the programming of the articulators and rapid sequences of muscle movements for speech sounds (often associated with hypotonia and sensory integration disorder). Oral apraxia involves non-speech movements (e.g., blowing, puckering, licking food from the lips)http://www.shop-in-service.com/apraxia.htm#W

As a result cotton is non-verbal and has "feeding issues". It is very difficult for him to take bites of food. Although he can chew with little effort. Instead of taking bites, Cotton will shove the entire food in his mouth. We do many oral motor exercises, and he has made a lot of progress. He can say cracker.."cacka"...bacon..."cacun"....santa.."tanta"... and muda (sometimes). So how do we add these exercises into our RDI program? Well here are a few examples..

Blow down daddy... together we blow and blow until daddy falls down.

kisses.... standing facing each other we time it so we kiss in the middle, (Cotton has to practice this with a closed mouth;)

Blowing bubbles in our milk at the same time.

to name a few.