Childhood apraxia of speech is a motor speech planning disorder due to disconnect between the brain and the articulators (e.g. tongue, teeth, lips, jaw).
Apraxia interferes with a child's ability to produce syllables and words. Although children with apraxia can understand language, they struggle to plan out how to move their lips, mouths, tongue, and jaw in order for speech sounds to happen at the right time. Those speech movements and coordination are very important and there is no known origin or cause.
Evaluation and treatment are very important! Make sure to get your child a hearing test and speech evaluation.
Characteristics of Apraxia:
Inconsistent errors
Groping movements with the jaw, lips or tongue to make the correct movement for speech sounds
Number of speech errors increase as length of utterance increases
Telegraphic speech (e.g. "me cookie," "mommy go")
Consonant and vowel distortions
Incorrect stress patterns
Difficulty with smooth, accurate movement transitions from one sound to the next
What can we do to help?
PROMPT therapy is the most effective treatment for Apraxia. To learn more, click here.