BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Four-year-old Chase Pregitzer was a quiet baby. His mom Katie says he rarely cried, and they always attributed it to his happy attitude.
It wasn't until Chase should have started talking that she began to think there might be something more going on. He stayed mostly quiet when it seemed like other babies his age were finding their voices.
"Babbling. Baba. Mama. Dada. Really simple two consonant sounds," Katie Pregitzer explained. "But he wasn't doing any of it."
Katie had Chase evaluated, and he began speech therapy when he was 18 months old. One therapist suggested he might have Apraxia, which is a rare motor speech disorder. Only about 1-2 kids out of every 1,000 kids will be diagnosed.
"Your brain tells your tongue, your lips, your jaw what to do to make the sound. Chase's has almost a disconnect. He knew what he wanted to say but he couldn't get it out," explained Pregitzer.
As she learned more about it, Pregitzer began to realize the therapist was right. Chase was eventually officially diagnosed with Apraxia, but sometimes getting that diagnosis can take years.
Pregitzer reached out to 7 News because she's found that Apraxia isn't something many people talk about, and it can be hard, and even scary, for parents who are looking for answers when their child is struggling.
"I was a first-time mom. I didn't know what milestones he should be hitting when he should be hitting them," she explained. "So I'm listening to the doctor and friends - and it just felt like he was kind of falling behind."
The thing is - kids with Apraxia are actually picking up everything that's happening around them. They don't have any cognitive issues, they just struggle to get their mouths to say the words they want to say. While they can often get frustrated when they try to communicate with others,
"Three and four-step directions were a snap. I think it's because he wasn't spending any time speaking...so all the energy was going towards learning how to master following that many directions," Katie said.
Speech-Language Pathologist Lindsay Messore says that's very common with kids who have Apraxia.
"Everything is intact. Except for that communication piece. The brain to the muscles," she explained. Messore works with Chase and explains
Lindsay Messore is a speech-language pathologist who owns Sunflower Speech Services and works with Chase.
She says that disconnect means many kids with Apraxia have a hard time saying some words, and the words they do say might sound different each time.
"Maybe you want to say the word dog. And it's coming out like fog," Messore explained. "And the next time you try it's coming out like hog. And the next time you try you're just saying - ah."
Messore helps Chase learn how to move his mouth to make different sounds. She says sometimes she uses her hands to show kids the shapes their mouths should be making when they talk, and that it's just like training your muscles to do any task.
Pregitzer says Chase has made huge strides since he started therapy. But because it took her family so long to get an official diagnosis, she wanted to speak out so more parents have the information she has.
"The more people know, the better," she said. "We feel really fortunate with how far he's come."
If you want to learn more about Apraxia in kids, you can check out this link.
