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PRO-EFA - What is it?
Pro-Efa is a supplement made by Nordic Naturals, containing Omega 3 & 6's. This supplement seems to be helpful in children
with apraxia. There is currently a survey being conducted by me, about the various types of supplements being used on children
with apraxia.
There are other types of supplements out there with Omega 3 & 6's such as Efalex. Pro-Efa contains
borage oil, as the Efalex contains primrose oil. There are also supplements that contain just Omega 3 - such as cod liver
oil.
The only supplement I have tried is the Pro-Efa, and have found it to be very effective in improving my daughter's
speech and behavior issues, as well as her hyperactivity level. You can try any of these supplements, but you will find me
talking about Pro-Efa, because it is what I know to have worked for my child. Other children may have different degrees of
results on this or even the other supplements.
Copied from The Cherab Foundation website:
Verbal Apraxia (VA) affects the programming of the
articulators and
rapid sequences of muscle movements
for speech sounds. These children frequently display
neurologic soft signs including
hypotonia, sensory
integration disorder, and motor planning difficulties.
The speech assessment reveals a limited
repertoire of
consonant sounds, inconsistency of speech errors, and
sound/syllable omissions. These children usually
have
near-normal receptive language and intelligence. It is
a difficult speech disorder to treat with variable
outcomes.
Many children never develop intelligible,
conversational speech. Dramatic leaps in speech
progress have been noted
with essential fatty acid
(EFA) supplementation by parents and professionals.
The most often used EFA supplement is
a 1000 mg
capsule containing a mixture of DHA (docosahexaenoic
acid, 99 mg.), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid, 148 mg.),
GLA (gamma-linolenic acid, 40 mg) available under the
name of ProEFA or Complete Omega and manufactured by
Nordic
Naturals, California.
A Time Line of Therapeutic Outcomes in
Speech/Communication
Speech therapy
intervention has been an integral part
of a program designed to treat children diagnosed with
VA. Speech therapy approaches
from oral motor
patterning to traditional articulation drills yield
fair success over lengthy periods of time. The
potential therapeutic effect of EFA supplementation
initiated by parents was followed in four children
with VA
by the CHERAB Foundation's speech pathologist.
Outcomes of the study are reported here. An initial
evaluation consisting
of a receptive and expressive
language test, oral motor coordination examination and
verbal/sound production test
(Receptive One Word
Vocabulary Test, Expressive One Word Vocabulary Test,
Preschool Oral Motor Functioning Scale,
Kaufman Speech
Praxis Test) was performed on each subject prior to
EFA supplementation. In general, the children
demonstrated
age-appropriate receptive language
skills, extreme difficulty coordinating articulator
movements for sound production,
and a significant
delay in expressive language skills. The children were
given a daily dose of one 1000mg capsule
of ProEFA.
Two weeks into supplementation, each child began
demonstrating improved attention to task, sustained
eye
contact with the therapist and calmer general
participatory behavior. Beyond this time, each child
demonstrated an
improvement in the level of verbal
statement specific to the baseline performance
obtained in testing. One of the
children began
supplementation essentially non-verbal and progressed
to two-word utterance production within 2 months.
Outcome measures included standardized scores from
general tests of language and measures taken from
language-sample
analyses as well as an objective scale
grading speech production from non-verbal to singing.
There were modest to
significant changes in
standardized measures of language after 2-3 months of
EFA supplementation in all four cases
using an 80%
criterion confidence interval. These were
substantiated by the clinically significant changes in
language
sample measures. Such improvement
characteristically occurs after 9 to 12 months of
intensive speech therapy intervention.
Where do I get Pro-Efa?
Shop-in Service
Nordic Naturals
How should I give it to my child?
Remember this is an oil, so it does not mix with juices or milk, however, some kids will take it mixed with their milk and
juice, mine will not.
Some kids will chew the capsule, and spit out the pill.
Here are a few other suggestions:
-Mix with yogurt or pudding
-Put in scrambled eggs before cooking
-Mix in pancake batter, for the "special"
pancake
-Add to ketchup or mayonaise for a sandwich
-Mix with warm syrup for waffles or pancakes
-Use a medicine
dropper, and force into mouth, (Not the best way, but however, sometimes this must be done)
***Any other suggestions,
please email me and I will post to site. Let me know how your child takes it.***
Pro-Efa Study
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