Welcome …

My son Jake had always been a quiet, happy baby. But in 2011, when his silence stretched into his toddler years, I knew something was wrong. Diving into speech therapy at age two, Jake made a little progress, but was still far from being able to communicate.

On the day before his third birthday, he was finally given a diagnosis: Jake had childhood apraxia of speech, a disorder where the brain knows what to say, but the mouth, tongue, and jaw simply don’t cooperate. He was also struggling with severe eczema, asthma, and multiple food, chemical, and environmental allergies.

My world was turned upside down.

After the apraxia diagnosis, I increased Jake’s speech therapy sessions to two times a week with a private SLP and worked with him most days at home. But something just wasn’t right. He would gain words and then regress, and his errors were all over the place.

When Jake turned four, I took him to an integrative MD to explore what else might be going on. At this time, he went on a clean, gluten and casein free diet + supplements for his nutritional deficiencies. He also started doing hand cues in speech therapy and acupuncture.

The results were astounding! Approximately a year later, he tested out of apraxia. He was able to enter kindergarten being able to talk to his classmates and learn with ease.

Fast forward a decade+, and Jake is now a sophomore in high school, makes good grades, and enjoys playing sports. We are a success story … he went on to have no other learning or speech challenges, and his eczema, asthma, and multiple allergies were also healed.    

I hope the words contained within the walls of this blog will educate, inspire, and empower you. Since this is an older blog, which has been turned into an educational resource, see the Menu above to access the categories: Age 2-3, Age 4-5, Resources, Joy in the Journey, Speech Activities, Diet & Supplements.

This blog documented my son’s journey with apraxia of speech from 2012-2016. I am now a holistic health practitioner & coach providing holistic education & support to moms of children with apraxia of speech. Ways to learn more:

1. Follow on Instagram @tori_simplyholistic
2. Check out the book — “Voice of Truth: A Mother’s Journey to Help Her Son Heal from Apraxia of Speech”
3. Subscribe to my new blog at Simply Holistic Solutions.

All the best,

Tori Starling, CHHP