I had a lot of snow days this winter so was able to meet Zack’s speech clinicians, Sam and Alyssa, and watch them in action.

The first day of the semester, Alyssa administered the Apraxia Battery for Adults (aba-2. I looked but was unable to find a sample online. The test costs $165, which I didn’t think was a good use of $ since I’m not the one who will give it!)

It started out that Zack repeated sounds like pahtah (2 front sounds – lips then teeth) then tahkuh (front sound followed by a back sound) for 3 seconds. Then puhtuhkuh for 5 seconds. These were hard!

Then Zack was asked to repeat related words that got longer in progression i.e. thick thicken thickening. jab jabber jabbering. please pleasing pleasingly. jig jiggle jiggling. strength strengthen strengthening. soft soften softening. nation national nationality.

These were pretty easy. And the list goes on.

instruct instructive instructively. attract attractive attractively. city citizen citizenship. response responsible responsibility. character characteristic characteristically.

Then repeating phrases: The man at the computer was typing. The man at the computer was typing quickly. I’m not sure if they said the man at the computer was typing quickly or slowly.

Some following directions testing. I have vivid and terrible memories of these types of exercises in rehab, when Zack couldn’t understand the oral directions. These (in Feb) went much better! Make a fist. Wave goodbye. Snap your fingers. Hide your eyes. Make a hitchhiking sign. Salute. Play the piano. Stick out your tongue. Puff out your cheeks. Clear your throat. Show me your teeth. Take a deep breath in.

Alyssa showed Zack some pictures and he was to say what he saw. These went pretty well – bike for motorcycle, phone for telephone, light for flashlight, papers for newspaper, fridge for refrigerator; banana elephant butterfly all correct as well.

When shown a circus scene, Zack was asked to describe it. “The who is it who is the people. So here is a woman. In the horse. in the dancing people. The man is going to going to the lions. In the man is dancing on the people.”

Some counting forward and backward. All of this is hard.

Lastly, pronouns to describe a picture. Pronouns are something Zack worked on a lot in 2018. He started out really accurate with the shes and hes then it got worse at the end.

Usually, by now we’ve gotten some paperwork or reports but not yet. The semester ends in early May so we’ll get something then maybe. Regardless of the #s, Zack continues to work really hard and make great progress!