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Family Faces Photo Album :
This is a variation on the pointing program, but it will eventually lead to words or sounds spoken verbally as well. You will need to purchase a small inexpensive photo album. The kind that most dollar stores sell that holds 4x6 photos is perfect. Gather some photos of the people who live in your household, and maybe the grandparents too if you see them often enough for your child to know who they are (and we hope that you do!)

Put one picture per page, and be sure that the photo is an individual photo. We like to label the picture with the person’s name as another way to encourage sight word reading. Go through the album with your child and ask “Where is mommy?” (The child will see two photos on the open pages and will be prompted to point to mommy as asked. You may need to use hand over hand prompting to isolate the “pointing” finger at first.)

Once your child is good at identifying your family members by pointing, you will want to start teaching him to say their names. We understand that your non-verbal child may not be able to do this, but many times with enough practice they will eventually say the beginning sound of the name. To encourage this, open the book and ask “Where is mommy?” and have the child point to the mommy picture. Then ask him to “say mommy” for you. You will probably need to slow down and pronounce the word very slowly. Maybe you will get a “muh” or other sound indicating that he is trying to say “mommy”, and you should celebrate that. Remember that the motor planning problem makes it hard for the child with apraxia to both recall and articulate words, so he will need constant reminders and verbal examples to follow to be successful.

We have had to “change” some names for Nicolas to make them easier to say. We knew that “Elijah” was going to be difficult, so we dropped it to “Lie – ja”. We could have called him “Eee-lie”, but it is harder for Nicolas to say this. Be flexible and have fun with this idea. The goal is to connect with your child and keep him talking! (Even if he is technically non-verbal…)