Special Education Family Interview

Steffani Baxter
10.27.14
Family Interview
For my family interview, I interviewed a mother who has a son with Apraxia. Apraxia is
a poorly understood neurological condition. Some people who have Apraxia find it hard to make
certain movements. There are two major forms of apraxia of speech; they are acquired apraxia
and developmental apraxia. Acquired apraxia is a type of apraxia that occurs in people of all
ages. This type of apraxia causes people to lose their speech-making abilities once they have
already acquired it. Another type of apraxia is known as childhood apraxia of speech. This is the
type of apraxia that mother said her child had. This apraxia is present from birth and affects a
childs ability to form sounds and words. One characteristic of this type of apraxia is that
children have the ability to understand speech rather than express it themselves. With the correct
treatment most children who have apraxia can experience improvement with the correct
treatment.
There are a variety of symptoms for apraxia of speech. Some of these symptoms include
difficulty stringing syllables together to make words, minimal babbling during infancy, difficulty
saying long or complex words and distorting of vowel sounds. When a child has apraxia it often
is accompanied by other things as well. They could include limited vocabulary, grammatical
problems, and problems with coordination and fine motor skills.
I started off my interview by asking the mother to explain to me what her son John had.
She told me that John has Apraxia both verbal and motor along with ADD. John had childhood
apraxia of speech; this affected him from a very early age, but with the right treatment he would

Special Education Family Interview

overcome this type of Apraxia. John was identified with Apraxia at the age of three when he
wasnt talking much in school. Apraxia is a neurological/ motor disorder which also affects
speech and movement. John was put into a variety of schools where he experienced a variety of
services to try and help him. Johns mom told me that her son had started off in a public school
for kindergarten but realized that he wasnt doing well, so he eventually ended up repeating
kindergarten. John was only communicating by sign language because he was unable to put the
words together. His mom told me that he understood the concepts when the teacher asked
questions but was just unable to verbalize the answers. Johns teacher didnt even notice that
John was trying to answer the questions when the teacher had asked them. The therapists at
school taught John to use sign language to communicate with others. No one else in Johns class
was using sign language to communicate so it was just him. Johns mom also told me that at one
point, the teachers thought he was never going to talk. She told me she was asked if her son
should be moved into an intellectual delay class or not. John ended up testing out of that type of
class. At age five, Johns mom was asked to start thinking of alternate communication. One type
of alternate communication that was offered to her was the DINO Box. The DINO Box is a tool
to help with communication. The most important thing that Johns mom told me was to not let up
on the speech.
While in school, John received a variety of services to help improve. After John
tested out of the intellectual delay class, his mom moved him to a private school. This private
school was good for John because it really gave him a chance to shine. At this school John
received speech help before and after school. Before the family moved to a private school, John
was also receiving help from a therapy place that works with children. At these places, John
received speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy. All these therapies were trying to

Special Education Family Interview

help him with his speech. Eventually with all the therapy John began to start talking, at the age of
nine. Johns mom was so happy when her son started talking because it showed her that all her
hard work was paying off. John is just proof that with the right services, children can overcome
their apraxia.
Another interesting thing that Johns mom told me was all the services that she
used to try and help John improve his skills. Some of these services included horseback riding.
John rode horses once a week but eventually had to stop because of the time commitment.
Horseback riding is a good service because it allows the child to focus on one thing while
calming the child. Johns mom told me that it was good to have him in horseback riding because
it encourages good behavior and to discourage negative behavior. Johns mom also wanted him
to participate in activities that would help him walk and talk at the same time. At one point John
was also doing swimming but had to stop because of the time commitment as well. Music
therapy was something that Johns mom was very passionate about as well. This is a therapy in
which the child listens to things through special headphones.
Johns mom also had many interesting things to tell me about raising a son with special
needs. One of the things that Johns mom told me was about the possibility of special needs
school. She told me that these schools that service special needs schools are rare. The special
needs schools serve a wide variety of children with special needs. Johns mom told me that she
needed a school that would focus more on the language and not so much the behavior side. John
has really good behavior; he just needed to work on the language aspect. Johns mom also told
me some of the most positive outcomes of his diagnosis. The most positive aspect was that John
started talking. She was really focused on two things, the first being him speaking and the second
being that he would speak normally so that others would understand him. Right now John is in

Special Education Family Interview

the imagination stage at age 9 because he just started talking. Johns mom is experiencing all the
imaginary friends and the why questions, that kids ask. The most important thing that helped
John get to where he is today was the amount of times that he got help. John got help three times
a week with his Apraxia.
In conclusion, I found this interview very valuable. I think that this will help me in the
future if there is a special needs student in my class. Apraxia is just one of several learning
disabilities that I might come in contact with when I am a teacher. I think that as a teacher it is
important to be able to recognize students who have learning disabilities. These students require
different types of instruction and activities. Overall this interview taught me a lot about Apraxia
and what to look for in these children.