Is it a Speech Delay or Apraxia?

My daughter with apraxia could best be described as "consistently inconsistent". As she grew, one day she could say certain words, the next day she couldn't. She said "hi" for quite awhile, and then she stopped saying it. Her speech did not grow in a normal pattern. She generally said partial words, such as "ju" for juice. At age three she said about thirty partial words. She really didn't begin to speak until age four and then it was in three to four word sentences. She also had issues with not having the ability to blow out her birthday candles, and singing was very difficult for her as she had trouble with fluency. She also had delays in fine motor skills and gross motor skills.

My son at age two also didn't talk. We had him tested by a speech therapist who determined his language was approximately ten months delayed. His other growth and development tests were normal. He began speech therapy and acquired language in the normal way, however it was just slower than average. He experienced a "language explosion" which is something my daughter with apraxia never did. He was able to repeat words and consistently label items. By age thirty months his speech was retested to be only three months behind.

My son most likely would have talked without speech therapy, however after everything we had been through with my daughter we felt it would be best to have his language evaluated. My daughter would not have spoken normally without proper intervention. She required intensive speech therapy and additional therapies in order to recover from apraxia.