What is Apraxia?

Apraxia is a motor speech disorder. Childhood apraxia of speech is a rare, but lifelong disorder that makes it difficult for individuals to move their mouth muscles in order to speak. The important thing to note about Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is that the child knows what they want to say, but may struggle with connecting the brain to the muscles that must accompany speech.

Unlike other forms of childhood speech problems, CAS is not a disorder that can be outgrown. Children with CAS must receive treatment in order to make any progress with speech.

Signs of CAS in children older than 3 years old include:

- not pronouncing words the same way every time

- putting the stress on the wrong syllable or word in a sentence or sequence of words

- distortions in sounds

- ease with shorter words and struggle with longer words

Speech therapy for CAS focuses on strengthening the muscle groups required to speak - included facial and oral structures. This part of speech language therapy is referred to as speech motor planning and programming. SLP's will focus on techniques and activities that strengthen the lips, tongue, soft palate, jaw and vocal folds - to help the child learn when to activate and move each at the right time and in the right order, so that words are pronounced and produced accurately.

Children with CAS may also struggle with fine motor skills, delayed language, and problems with reading, spelling and writing.

If you have questions about CAS and want to learn more about what speech therapy services we can provide at PMC, please reach out today.