1. Get the Appropriate Rehabilitation Therapy
If you are charged with the care of a person suffering from some form of apraxia, it's important to seek the appropriate therapy to treat and manage the disorder. Speech and language therapy is used for those who have apraxia of speech and occupational and physical therapy is used for those who have limb-kinetic apraxia, buccofacial apraxia and other apraxias that affect motor skills. Rehabilitation therapy for apraxia usually focuses on repetition of words or skills. Apraxia is often caused by damage to a specific part of the brain (usually the left cerebral hemisphere). Repetition is used in order to train other parts of the brain to perform the skills it has lost. Sometimes those skills cannot be relearned, but other skills can be learned in their place. Rehabilitation therapy can be beneficial for apractic patients with all levels of severity, but some patients may never regain the ability to perform the tasks necessary for daily independent living.
2. Consider Skilled Nursing Care
Managing a patient with severe apraxia can be an enormous challenge. A severely apractic patient can have difficulty walking, may be prone to falling and can get into dangerous situation such as attempting to brushing her teeth with a knife or putting a metal pot in the microwave. Elderly patients with dementia also have cognitive impairments that can contribute to dangerous situations. If you do not feel like you can provide the necessary care and supervision for a loved one suffering from apraxia and other conditions, skilled nursing care may be helpful. Care can be provided through a nursing home or an in-home nurse.
3. Manage a Child With Apraxia of Speech
Speech and language therapy is used to treat developmental apraxia of speech in children. This therapy usually takes at least a couple of years to work, but most children will develop the ability to speak intelligibly eventually. Living with a child with apraxia is often an exercise in patience for parents because it is so difficult for the child to communicate effectively. Patience, however, is required to provide an environment where the child feels safe and comfortable trying to communicate. It's important that parents don't pressure their child into speaking clearly. Rather, parents should reinforce the speech therapy exercises by practicing them at home. If you have a child with developmental speech apraxia, provide plenty of opportunities for her to repeat words and phrases. Singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes with repetitive lines is a fun way to help your child learn the proper rhythm of speech. Use a mirror to show your child her lips making the sounds needed to make the words. You can also model the movement for her. Above all else, your work with your child should always be fun, not laborious.
