May is Apraxia Awareness Month, so let’s take the time to learn about it!
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that makes speaking very challenging. Many children with Apraxia have an understanding of language that is within their typical age range. However, they have difficulty getting that language out in the form of speech movements.
Speech is a very complex process. We often take for granted our quick ability to sputter out a sentence! Various motor movements are involved in speech production:
- Respiration–having enough breath support
- Phonation–turning our voice on/off
- Lingual–Moving our tongue in the correct way (up, down, back and forth)
- Labial– putting our lips together, sometimes on our teeth as well, rounding and retracting our lips (pulling them back)
All of these specific movements need to be coordinated and timed well to make our speech sound clear and intelligible. With CAS, there can be a range of difficulty with planning and executing these precise speech movements. This does not mean the child doesn’t have the language in their brain that they want to communicate and DOES NOT indicate a lack of knowledge.
Many times Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) may be a great option to bridge the gap between your child’s understanding and ability to express themselves. This can greatly reduce frustration while your child is working on improving their speech production. We can help you decide if this path may help your child.
If you know a child who experiences difficulty speaking, here is what you can do to be a better communication partner:
- Don’t interrupt them when they’re trying to speak
- Give them adequate time to respond to a comment or question (even up to 1 minute)
- Ask specific questions to help them convey their message:
- Is it an animal?
- Is it a person?
- Are you talking about something outside?
- Are you talking about food?
Apraxia requires a very specific approach of therapy that incorporates principles of motor learning. If your child has been in traditional articulation or speech therapy with very slow or limited progress, it may be time to consider a different approach.
If you have a hunch that your child may have Childhood Apraxia of Speech, a proper diagnosis is imperative. It is important to find a speech-language pathologist who specializes in CAS. This means they will have knowledge of DTTC (Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing) or PROMPT (PROMPTS for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets). If you are in the San Joaquin County Area, our practice Communication Blooms would be an amazing place to support your child with CAS.
If you have questions or are wondering if your child could benefit from therapy specific to CAS, please reach out to set up an initial consultation.
We can be reached at mackenzie@communicationblooms.org or (209) 683-3427.
Learn more about us at communicationblooms.org or our instagram @communicationblooms.
