MIRACLE MONDAYS – Brody Perkins
At 21 months, a speech evaluation revealed that Brody Perkins was Apraxic. “He had only one word,” said Tiffany Perkins, Brody’s Mom. “We had a speech evaluation with Diana in Pedi Rehab. She said he definitely needed therapy. I was scared of what was to come but happy to know my Mom gut was right and someone listened!”
Apraxia of speech (AOS) is an impaired ability to perform speech movements. The primary characteristics are slowed speech, abnormal prosody and distortion of speech sounds.
“It was frustrating at first,” Tiffany said. “Brody did not cooperate initially. He didn’t understand what was going on and couldn’t communicate his frustrations. It was scary to discuss further evaluation with a doctor because Brody was not progressing at all.”
Eventually, Brody did progress….and made great strides in speech therapy. “One of the happiest moments was right before 1st grade when he read a book to our speech therapist Diana!”
Today, Brody is eight years old, entering first grade and excelling! He is right at his normal reading level.
“Our time at St. John’s could not have been better! I never had one complaint from the moment we walked in at 21 months old for an evaluation until he graduated from Pedi Rehab at age 4 ½! Diana, Jamie, Maureen and Julie were amazing. They never gave up and never stopped believing in him!”
One exciting part of Brody’s story is how involved his sister got. “Madelyn was able to come in and help Brody during therapy. It was an amazing thing for her to see and be a part of. She was so inspired that she joined SYPG’s ‘The Smile Company’ and dressed up like Chase from Paw Patrol to go visit kids at the Children’s Hospital.”
Do you have a miracle child that was treated as HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital? Facebook message us or email dave.newton@hshs.org and tell us your story! #miraclemondays.