How we got here

I guess, looking back, the first sign of apraxia may have been my sons' eating/food issues. My son did fine with baby food. But as he was nearing his first birthday, I kept trying to get him to eat finger foods. He wanted no part in it. Even things like bananas, that was his favorite to eat mashed up - he refused to eat whole. He would try, and spit it back out, sometimes even gagging on it. So I continued mashing up all of his food well up until he was 17 months old. Even at 3yrs old, there are plenty of things he will not eat - but it's not the usual picky preschooler, it's more than that. He literally cannot stand the texture of certain foods. As far as his speech, at a pediatrician visit when Ben was 15 months old, we were told to contact an early prevention facility to see if he would qualify for therapy. He was jargoning a lot, but no real words except for the occasional "mama" or "dada". After a phone interview with the facility, we were told he was not delayed enough to require intervention at that time.
My husband and I were not at all concerned either. We felt he would talk when he was ready. And we continued to feel that way until he was nearing 2.5yrs old. He had maybe 50 words, but only 4 or 5 that were clearly pronounced. He would make long sentences and tell long stories, none of which was even intelligible. I knew it was a bigger issue than "he'll talk when he's ready" or "he's just going to be a late talker." No, it was more than that. He needed some help.
Since he was so close to 3yrs old, they told us to go through the school district to have him evaluated. We first met with the school speech & language pathologist, school psychologist, and school developmental preschool teacher. They listened to him talk, they asked me questions, and decided that he had some needs and they would do a full evaluation on him. But we needed to wait until he was actually 3yrs old. So we waited a few months.
The testing process was annoying. Expecting a 3yr old to sit for up to an hour and answer questions, look at pictures, demand answers..it was all kind of frustrating. I was proud of my son sitting for 45minutes straight on one day. But then I was told he has a short attention span..go figure. I stated to them that a normal attention span for a 3yr old is 15min & he well exceeded that!
But the first time I heard "apraxia" was during that process from the SLP. I went home and searched for anything about it. After reading it was a neurological disorder, and the seriousness of it, I felt deeply sad. He did have a lot of the signs, including the food texture issue. I felt it was definitely a possibility, but I kept holding onto what the SLP said to me - that it's just a guess based upon his symptoms and by no means was a definitive diagnosis at that point.
We started speech therapy with the school , while also waiting for insurance authorization for private therapy. Our school therapist was very adamant he get private therapy. Ben's speech was considered only 10% intelligible. 10%!!
During the therapy sessions, as I listened to Ben, the signs of apraxia kept arising. For the most part, Ben only has the beginning sounds for every word. For instance, water is "wa", dog is "da" , milk is "ni" . He will also switch vowel sequencing. For instance if asked to say "puppy" he will usually say "pee puh." Our school therapist has since confirmed his apraxia diagnosis. We have been in therapy with her for about 6 weeks now. We are currently awaiting an opening for private therapy as well.