My son has speech apraxia. He was only diagnosed a year ago and he will be 6 in 3 weeks. He's got a lot of difficulty producing the sounds required to make up words but can understand everything. He isn't tongue tied or anything. He had no real proper words he would say things like 'ah' for car or 'or' for more and most of it was grunting and pointing. He'd even made up his own type of sign language to try to communicate.
Two years ago we realised he wasn't hearing properly and he had to have grommets put in due to fluid despite having no ear infections. We also had his adenoids and tonsils removed as that was interfering with his breathing.
Late last year he was diagnosed with autism and he's been having speech therapy at school once a week with a specialised autism speech therapist. He's had other therapists before but it was difficult as he's incredibly shy and just wouldn't cooperate in sessions at a clinic. School sessions have been a blessing as he loves school and feels the sessions are just part of his schooling. In just this year alone he's had a huge burst in his speech. At 5yrs 7mths he finally said daddy for the first time. He's communicating a whole lot more without getting frustrated. He's still got a long way to go but it's such a massive improvement.
It's been a long road. I've taken my son to countless therapists, paediatricians, psychologists, OTs and what not. My son also has gross motor skills delay. With the combination of this and his behaviour is how we got the diagnosis of autism. I'm not suggesting your son has this at all but it could be something to look into, i also looked into him maybe having global developmental delay. Without a proper diagnosis here in Australia he would really not get any help everything we did prior to his diagnosis was all out of pocket.
I hope my story gives you some hope that even speech apraxia can slowly be overcome. My son went from literally no words to acheiving 80% in reading at school.
