Welcome to OnQ magazine.

I'm Stacy Smith.

Anyone with children will tell you a baby's first word is somethin that a parent will never forget.

And as children grow, they're speaking.

Ability becomes a major facto in their success through life.

For many people, those words come easily, but not so for some children who struggle to speak because of a condition called apraxia.

Well, tonight OnQ's Tony Caruso shows how researchers and parents are gaining ground when it comes to identifying and treating approximate.

It was the plan, you know, to to get married and start our family.

Kate did not have an easy part.

Her heart stopped.

She was in an emergency C-section and went without oxygen for, you know, whatever amount of minutes.

But after she wa born, a little Kate seemed fine, and her parents, Kath and Drew Bauer of Mount Lebanon, were happy and proud of their beautiful baby girl.

We always used to think that Kate was going to speak early because she made so many speech attempts.

She even had a few words that she would say.

And then somehow when she was, a little bit younger than two, she just lost everything.

She still made the speech attempts, but there were no really there were no speech sounds that were there.

But Kate kept trying to talk and when she couldn't, she grew more and more frustrated.

So did her mother, who feare her daughter might never speak.

She received a diagnosis o developmentally delayed, which, you know, I think basically means I didn't really know.

I mean, they knew that there was something going on, but they couldn't put a name to it.

So we she started speech therapy at that time.

Kathy didn't get an official diagnosis on Kate until after the birth of her second child, Andy.

He, too, was unable to speak.

Every time I looked at him, I just cried.

And then I kind of got mad because it became very clear to me that he wanted to.

I mean, I mean, he really tried to speak.

He was always trying to speak.

I knew that this child was was very smart and was very intelligent and had many gifts.

At that point, Andy was three and was diagnosed as apraxia.

And then the speech therapist went back and took another look at her with that in mind.

And said, you know, Katie also shows many of the characteristics of an apraxia child.

Like so many people, Kathy Bauer had never heard of apraxia.

It's a complex and baffling neurological disorder.

Children with apraxia typically have unclear or severely limited speech.

Yet they're able to understand what is being said to them.

What room is best?

This is a room.

We call it the control room.

For one of our studies that we're doing for the National Institutes of Health.

Doctor Tom Campbell is an expert on speech problems.

He's director of audiology and communication disorders at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Apraxia of speech is a problem in trying to plan the motor event for moving your articulators, your articulators being, you know, your jaw, your lips, your tongue, and other parts of the inside of your mouth.

So, in other words, a child who has apraxia, they want to speak but they can't make it happen.

That's right.

They often know what they wan to say, but they can't actually take that event.

You know, the sound they want to say and plan the motor activities that go along with it.

I want a hammer, hammer too.

I need a hammer too.

Diagnosing children with apraxia isn't easy.

In fact, it's often misdiagnosed.

But in terms of diagnosis, that's one of the biggest challenges that we have, both a researchers and as clinicians.

Because what happens with kids that are suspected of having apraxia of speech, some of their characteristic are very similar to those kids that have another speec disorder that is very frequent developmental articulation problems or speech disorders of unknown origin.

We you try it.

That's our W to E sound ‘we nice.

But once doctors zer in on the problem and confirmed that it's apraxia, a speech therapy is the next step.

Therapists use a variety o approaches, all aimed at helping children learn where and how sounds are made.

A lot of times they don't know where they, you know, kids with apraxia of where to put their tongue and their lips.

So we have to give them maybe cues in terms of, you know, maybe some sign languag we may have to show them with, a diagram where their tongue has to be.

We give them input.

We have machines or computer that will transducer or change the voice into some visual display so they can see where thei tongue and their lips might be.

So we hav we have to give them a lot more input about where the articulators need to be.

And what can I call him?

Kitty.

I'll just call him Kitty.

How about that?

You can call him tiger.

You can call him tiger to learn more about speech disorders in children.

Doctor Campbell and therapists from several universities across the countr are working together on a study.

We're measuring different motor systems in the children, how they move their lip and their tongue and their jaw, how they actually coordinate their movement and their vocal folds and their voicebox with speech production and how they actually regulate tha with their respiratory system.

So we're taking these little three and four year old kids, both normal kids and kids suspected of having a speech problem.

And we're trying to identif if are certain characteristics in certain parts of the speech system that are different, that we might be able to use as a new classification system for both kids that have developmental articulation problems and kids that have apraxia speech that comes out of intense therapy can make all the difference in the world for children.

With apraxia, Kathy, Kate and Andy can testify to that.

And while Andy continue his speech therapy, big sister Kate is already thinking about college.

Hopefully, in the long run I can maybe become an actress.

You know, that way I'll be able to show people that you wouldn't.

A speech disorder wouldn't let something like, wouldn't get in the way of you becoming something that you've always wanted to become.

But, yeah, I'm excited.

Talk to me about the website you built for your dad.

Took me two summers, and it's a live auction site.

At this point, the kids are doing terrific.

Andy is in eighth grade.

He does really well in school.

He's, very gifted in computer sciences.

He's fun.

He's funny.

He's just a great person to be around.

Kate is terrific.

She's getting ready to drive.

They're both just beautiful.

Bright, Articulate.

I think that parents need to go with their instincts.

If you think there's a problem with your child, if you think that their speech is delayed, regardles of what someone's telling you, you need to go get that evaluation.

Move it along.

Kids with speech production problems who are not resolved early in their lives have huge issues with literacy or at risk for issues with literacy.

You know they're at risk for isolation.

They're at risk for social issues.

Go get it.

Know what those red flags are.

And just deal with this head on and get these kids help.

Now, both Kate and Andy went through a total of 13 therapy sessions each week for several years.

Andy, as we mentioned, is still in therapy, but doing well.

And that brings us to some very important information about a national organization designed to help kids with apraxia.

It was started right here in Pittsburgh.

The group is called CASANA.

It stands for Childhood Apraxia Speech Association of North America.

The Bauers are very involved in this program.

It basically has become the go to place for information about the disorder.

CASANA has a professional advisory board, made up a therapist and some of the best researchers in the country.

CASANA holds informationa sessions, trainings, and more.

It's helped countless families across the United States.

If you would like more information on apraxia, you can call CASANA at (412)767-6589.

Again, that's (412)767-6589.

Or you can go to our website at wqed.org.

Clic the OnQ logo on the first page and we will link you to that website.

And Stacy, both Kat and Andy are just so fabulous.

And their mother, Kathy has really spent so much time working on CASANA and really providing a source of information for parents and families to go to and use.

It's interesting because Kate was not diagnosed right away.

Andy basically was when the felt something was wrong there, and they determin why some children have apraxia and others don't know really, at this point they have not.

And that's why the research is so important.

Kathy Bauer told us they later determined her husband had apraxia, so she believes it might be inherited.

But really, Stacy, there is n scientific data to prove that.

And that's why the research that is underway as well is so important.

All right, Tanya, thank you.

Welcome.

Still to come, Yoga for children.

Find out how this popular form of exercise is being used to help local children feel better about their bodies and themselves.

And then after that, we uncover a local rattlesnake rescue mission.

We'll show you why local group are trying to save this snake.

That's coming up on OnQ continues.

You're watching OnQ magazin because these foundations care enough about local programing to help pay for it.

The Howard Heinz endowment.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation, the McCune Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Hillman Foundation, the Grable Foundation, and these corporations.

Also support OnQ.

Kids who are ready for school are ready for life.

PNC Grow Up Great is helping families with great tips and resources.

More information is available at any branch or online.

I was always kind of big.

My old pictures, I was pretty big.

My parents started to get worried.

It's changed a lot now.

My doctor's been helping.

My school's been helping.

I'm not afraid to try on clothes anymore.

I love my team picture.

I'm not big in it.

It's awesome.

Heading off health problems before they begin can have other remarkable side effects.

A helping hand in the places we call home.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

And we couldn't do it without you.

The members of WQED instructors say that.

Well, let me start here.

For the last two years, OnQ has partnered with PNC to bring you a series of reports called Grow Up Great.

Now, the goal is to better prepare children at the earliest possible age for school and for life.

Now, so far, we've reported on everythin from literacy to eating habits.

And tonight the focus is on exercise, but not an exercise that most children or parents would consider.

Currently, SB reports on a program in Squirrel Hill that is helping children to Grow Up Great.

I like rolling my eyes and allowing you to roll your eyes.

A couple my friends did it and they said it was fun.

So my dad thought it would be a good idea to try it out.

I sometimes practice practice it at home down so everybody get a comfortable place to sit.

Once a week, Mickie Diamond spreads out her mat at a school called Community Day in Squirrel Hill, where she shares her love of yoga.

My philosophy really is yoga for everybody, and I work with a wide variety of groups, as young as pretty much newborn, all the way up to seniors.

Today, Mickie is working with children from kindergarten through fourth grade.

Some of these students are yoga veterans.

I've been taking it for three years.

I like how it makes you feel when you're doing it.

It's not like lots of other exercises, and it's not like a lot of other after school activities.

Students of this age don't often get the chance to study yoga.

I like, doing different poses and trying to balance because sometimes it' challenging, but it also is fun.

It's a really fun thing to do.

Try to get your tongue to the bottom of your chin off on a side.

There are serious benefits to taking yoga seriously.

What's beneficial for childre is, increasing body awareness.

And if you sit like this, what happens to your lungs?

They just as my care.

We talk a lot about what's going on under the skin.

Adults don't even think about anybody else.

Use any other part of their body to make the sound.

Yes.

And once you start to talk about this, kids really care a lot.

Sometimes, even with young children, they don't have great a great body image, especially if a child is a little bit overweight.

And particularly for boys, although my classes tend to attract girls, it's very beneficial for boys who are not athletic because they can succeed here.

Over time, when they begin to build their muscles and they start to feel really strong.

It's a tremendous sense of empowerment.

Those are qualities that even the very young should learn.

That' why Community Day offers yoga.

We offer whatever opportunities parents or volunteers or people in the community want to provide in order to enrich the experiences that our students have.

I'm myself very, very happy that they have both chosen to take yoga.

Because I think it's just a fantastic skill for them to be able to develop, for them to be able to have different kinds of, relaxation techniques.

They learn the physical and mental discipline that yoga teaches, and they, they experience the social interaction after school with multi age, companions.

Stretch your arms out wide.

We're not going up yet.

There are many yoga positions, but one of the best known is called Child's Pose.

And then push up into downward dog.

Spread.

Your legs should take up the width of the mat.

An appropriate title.

Who else but a child could be this flexible?

One.

Two.

Three.

Oh, but teaching yoga to children isn't elementary.

The thing that you really have to change is the level of instruction.

And, if you just keep giving a child's instruction over and over again, they're going to get bored.

And they also get confused.

They have to feel like they're succeeding.

Very, very good.

You did better this week than last week.

You know that.

I'll give you an example of, how we adapt certain exercises so that they're geared more to children.

Say, I really believe in chanting.

However, I don't feel that it's appropriate to teach Sanskrit chanting to people of all different religions.

So, so when we begin our class, one of the things we do is I talk about breathing and then I have them say their names.

We are actually chanting What I like most is the talking toes.

All right everybody, wiggle out your toes.

I have the kids name their feet, and then they introduce thei feet to the child next to them.

So they wiggle their toes, and they really exercising their feet that way.

Our feet are actually very wonderful to us.

They carry us around all da and they never ask for anything.

Yoga opens up the body by increasing flexibility and it opens the mind to.

Mickie sees her students helping and respecting each other.

Really positive, values that are transmitted.

And that's one of the reasons why yoga so compatibl with the religious environment, because all the values are really quite good and compatible with any religion.

Yes.

Yoga makes me feel like stronger and smarter than maybe I really am.

Let's go to rub.

It's a discipline, and any discipline that you learn helps to strengthen you, as the cradle will rock.

I would say that primarily, the kids walk away with a greater body awareness greater capacity for breathing.

A greater ability or an ability to relax.

And their bodies are stronger.

The muscles are stronger and they're more flexible.

And that will come from the leg.

And if you can start yoga no and then and continue with it, by the time you're an adult you'll just be in amazing shape.

Instructors say tha yoga teaches very young children how to better focus their concentration.

Some instructors have been seen have seen improvement with concentration and special needs children as well, including those with attention deficit disorders.

And there is more information about yoga for children and about our grow up.

Great reports on our website wqed.org.

Just click the OnQ logo on the first page.

Now coming up next, surgery on snakes.

And there's a good reason that it's happening right here in western Pennsylvania.

Stay connected to see why.

Remember you have three chances a day to catch OnQ.

We're live weeknights at 7:30.

We show that episode later the same night at 11:30, and again the following afternoon at 12:30 OnQ, 7:30.

11:30 and 12:3 the following weekday afternoon.

Well, if you knew there were rattlesnakes near your home, you would probably try to avoid them at all cost or have them destroyed.

But tonight, OnQ has the story about local efforts to save a species in trouble.

Post-Gazette columnist and on cue contributor Doug Oster visits a ma who is on a rattlesnake rescue mission here in western Pennsylvania.

What would you do if you saw a rattlesnake?

Ben John hopes you can just give it a wide berth and move on.

He's on a missio in the woods of Venango County, tryin to save the last of the eastern Massasauga rattlesnakes in this region.

And it's not easy.

Constant throughout history is human persecution.

Typically, when there is a human and snake interaction, it doesn't bode well for the snake, particularly if it's a rattlesnake.

No one has ever died by being bitten by a Massasauga, but it is poisonous and needs to be respected, not feared.

It's a very shy, very docile snake.

First, your chances of encountering it are very, very low.

It's only for populations left.

Also, the snake, relies on its camouflage as its main source of defense and would rather remain undetected.

So even even when I'm tracking the snakes, I know that there's a snake within a one foot square on the ground directly betwee my feet, and I still can't see it is still one rattle is still on strike.

It remains camouflaged.

Ben is an endangered species biologist for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

He's dedicate the last seven years of his life to studying the Massasauga, and it's in trouble.

As a species, the snake is suffering severe declines throughout its range.

It was known from ten states in the United States and in all those ten states it's listed as endangered or threatened or species of concern.

Over the past century alone in Pennsylvania and the early 1900s, the snake was known from 19 separate populations in six counties.

Our latest study has shown that there's still been continued decline, and the Massasauga is now only found in four populations in two counties.

So you can hear that beep.

That's the signal coming in.

And we'll just walk in the direction that it comes in the loudest.

His latest project a telemetry study, is an attempt to learn more about the snake after being caught.

Small transmitters are surgically implanted in the Massasauga.

Through this study, we'll learn, what kind of habitat the snakes move.

We'll learn their home range, size, information on their spatia ecology, where they hibernate.

The transmitters are temperature sensitive.

Even while the snakes hibernating.

We'll be able to get at what temperature They're hibernating at.

Docto Cynthia Stadler is acting head veterinarian at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium.

She donates her time to perform the surgery.

It's very nice to be able to give back to the community and to be able to help out a species that really isn't in need.

Conservation work is one of the things we'd like to do in the zoo fiel and to be able to do something that's here in our backyard is tremendous.

Before the operation begins, Ben tests the transmitter to be sure it works.

The snake is put under.

Then the doctor makes a small incision and inserts the transmitter.

Well I think that the Massasauga is a species tha people may not care much about.

And I think it's important that people realize tha their status is very threatened where they pla a key role in our environment.

And it's important to study what's happening to their habitat and what's happening to their status in general.

On this day, the researchers release one snake in Cranberry Township, Venango County.

The property belongs to Ed Barr.

When Ed first bought the property 21 years ago, he encountered a Massasauga and killed it.

Since then, Ed' come to understand the snake's importance.

He's even working to save the species.

One day as driving the mower up over the hill there, and I happened to see two of them laying there, and I watched watch them all summer.

And every year I had two in that same area, but they were two different snakes each year.

They don't give birth every other year and, to come and give birth.

And next year or two more would come in and give birth.

And now the last two or.

2 or 3 years, there's only been one come up to give birth.

We are at site number 1347.

You know, we mark each individual bag with the snake and the location.

So we make sure that it gets put back the same exact location.

You know, on the surface o the Earth is what it came from.

That way they know where they are.

When we put them back down.

Matt Kowalski, an assistant herpetologist for the conservancy, teams up with Ben to release one of the snakes.

We can keep studying the snake and studying the snake and eventually what we're going to have is a mound of data.

But what has it really done to protect the species?

Nothing.

What the snake needs is, is habitat management, and it needs long term monitoring.

And this is a crucial step in that process where we're getting the data to come up with with a conservation management plan.

And it's Ben's research that will hopefully provide the data needed to save the snake.

You ready to go, puppy dog?

Using an antenna and a receiver, the two scientists head into the forest to record the movements of some other snakes fitted with transmitters.

The researchers spend long periods of time in the forest with the snakes, forming a bond with the animals they track.

One of the snakes released today was pregnant with babies from a male Ben had study.

The snake met its demise while crossing the road.

Was a nice snake.

And, whose he was fun to track.

And you track him three days a week for 5 or 6 months.

You kind of get attached and know their personalities, and you take it personal when one of them gets run ove or deprecated or what have you.

And it's it's hard on the researchers.

It's even harder o the population to loose snakes.

4578 but we're hoping thi baby's his legacy will live on, far into the future.

If Ben's work succeeds, generations to come will be able to appreciat this very misunderstood animal.

This is just another creature.

And because of, human actions we're driving it to extinction.

The main thing that I' interested in is giving a voice to something that can speak for itself.

Now, Doug tells u that Ben will spend the winter analyzin the data that he has collected, and then map out a plan to manage and keep track of the snakes.

And for more information about the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the plight of the eastern Massasauga in that rattlesnake, log on to wqed.org and click the OnQ logo on the first page.

Now here is a look at some of the other stories coming up this week.

Tomorrow night we take you inside the smallest hospital in the nation to meet a very special group of local volunteers.

They are Pittsburgh's baby holders.

See how they're changing the lives of infant who desperately need to be held.

Thursday night.

See, local artist Michael Fratangelo has been asked to participate in Italy's exclusive Florence Biennale art exhibition.

And on Friday, OnQ is OffQ.

Chris Moore host Friday regulars Fred Honsberger, Alan Cox, Ruth Ann Dailey with special gue local writer Alan James.

Stay connected.

And thank you for watching.

We'll see you back here live at 7:30 tomorrow night.

Stay connected and have a great night.