Thanks Kaydee.

My son also has apraxia as well. Funny thing is that we realize months (and sometimes years) later that he was actually trying to communicate to us something very specific.

For example, about 18 months ago he started saying "ertl ee". This occurred when he was playing with his toys (usually fish or finding Nemo toys) on our sandy colored bathroom floor.

A few months later this became "mertl ee"

Then a few months later "mertl bee"

And then a few months later "Myrtle Beach"

Apparently, he picked up on the "it's Myrtle Beach time" commercials that they run on BabyFirst TV. As such, we booked our vacation to Myrtle Beach the next day. He had a blast.

I don't have much consolation here, only to say that I am on a similar boat, with apraxia in the mix. That is incredible your son said those things. What an accomplishment. My son is working on imitating sounds, and we hear new sounds increasing, which is awesome, and he spontaneously and meaningfully said "mama" a few weeks ago, which was music to my ears. He loves numbers, so when you say each number, he can fill in some of the vowel sounds. He has most the vowels down, and can imitate a few words, so the foundations are being laid to be sure.

I ache for the day to have a verbal two-way conversation with him. He just turned four.

His doctor told us something along the lines of this, which was consoling: "You need to believe that he will talk. That's the best, and only thing you can do. Everything else will take time."

My son is 3.5 and I have seen huge strides in his speech this past year. He is not at level of NT peers but can effectively communicate his needs to us over 70% of the time. We have him doing 2 hours of speech therapy a week with an experienced speech therapist who has worked with autism and apraxia. We have also used Gemiini online- I use that every so often to push past barriers/regressions as it has really good visuals in it that help him understand the back-and-forth of conversation. At school, he has ABA reinforcing the Speech therapist’s guidance- speech therapist will visit the school every six months to observe and help the therapists who work with him daily to determine what they should be focusing on. This last time, they shifted focus to him being able to express himself when he is frustrated or has something urgent to communicate. For example, saying “No, I don’t like that.” If he doesn’t want to play or do something or feels uncomfortable, etc. he also does OT for 80 mins a week. Speech therapy plays a huge part, but I think everything is playing a role. OT has been really important for him in ways I can’t articulate but feels like I see physical changes in him- they incorporate Physical therapy into his sessions. I can tell he has problems feeling his mouth, and the OT teaches him how to sense all the parts of his mouth.

My son is 4, turns 5 next Sept. He was speaking sentences at a year old and gradually started regressing around 2.5 years old. Now he babbles a lot, but everyday his Speech gets better. His vocabulary growing. He is in speech therapy at a therapy center twice a week, has been since Feb. He is also in a special pre-k program with our public school system, they also provide speech twice a week, which he's only been in for a month. He has done amazing with these sessions. However, I didn't start seeing a huge improvement with his learning and speech until we got his meds balanced out. He now takes Guanfacine and Citalopram. His anxiety level was so high that it was 'clouding' his brain and he wasn't absorbing anything. But now is doing great. Conversation with him is still give or take, but he wants to and it's getting there! Be patient and continue working with him! If he is getting frustrated, then he wants to do it and just needs extra push, patience, and tools.
Oh and as far as tools go, I bought him a LeapFrog Epic tablet and it has helped amazingly well!
Good luck!

BTW every child is different... be patient!