What is Apraxia?
Does your child struggle with longer words? Do they mispronounce sounds, easily— even those they have said correctly, before? Do they struggle with reading and writing? Apraxia of speech may be the root cause.
Read on to learn more about this condition and how speech therapy with Therapy Smarts can help your child!
Video (Smart Start)
What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Childhood apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder that affects the nerve pathways between a child’s brain and mouth. A child with apraxia knows what they want to say. However, their brain is unable to correctly tell their mouth how to form the words.
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Signs & Symptoms of Apraxia
Children with apraxia may exhibit some of the following symptoms:
- Attempting to say a word several times before saying it correctly.
- Difficulty coordinating mouth movement from one syllable of a word to the next syllable
- Distorting or deleting sounds
- Making errors in the tone, stress or rhythm of their speech
- Making inconsistent pronunciation errors in speech
How Speech Therapy Helps
A speech therapy evaluation is the first step towards treating childhood apraxia of speech. There, a speech therapist will examine your child’s speech by checking for muscle weakness, their ability to pronounce vowels and consonants and other non-speaking skills such as blowing bubbles or smiling.
If a diagnosis of apraxia is determined, your speech therapist will build a detailed plan of care to address it, based on your child’s unique needs. Through ongoing sessions, your speech therapist will practice the pronunciation of sounds, words and phrasing at your child’s pace. If needed, they may also introduce alternative methods of communication to support these efforts, such as an AAC device.
Wondering About Developmental Milestones?
Have questions about your child’s development, or wondering if a certain diagnosis may be a fit? Try out our developmental screening tool— it’s a fast, free way to get a snapshot of your child’s progress on his or her developmental milestones.