Apraxia - An Atypical Articulation Disorder

You may have heard of "apraxia," but are unsure exactly what it is. Perhaps you have wondered whether your child's speech problem falls under this category. The official term for apraxia, approved by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), is "childhood apraxia of speech." Adults can also be diagnosed with "apraxia of speech," but this generally refers to an acquired disorder.

Most children with articulation disorders have errors that follow a predictable developmental pattern. Certain sounds, like /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /w/ are mastered first and are consistently produced correctly. More difficult sounds, such as /th/, /r/, and /ch/ are usually mastered later. Most children with articulation delays have no trouble with vowels or the rhythm of speech.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a deficit in the motor planning and programming of speech. It is a neurologically-based disorder. Children with CAS have severe speech problems that don't follow developmental patterns. Some of the indicators of Childhood Apraxia of Speech are:

-Inconsistent errors - A child may produce a sound in one context, but not in another. The child may make different errors when repeating the same word or phrase several times.

-Pauses between the sounds and syllables of a word

-Abnormal rhythm of speech

-Difficulty producing vowels

-More errors in longer and more complex utterances

-Unusual errors

Treatment of apraxia requires different therapy techniques from standard articulation therapy. If you suspect that your child may have apraxia, it is important to seek assessment and treatment from a speech-language-pathologist with experience in this area.

Deborah M. Lott is a speech pathologist who has published the Super Star Speech series of books to help parents correct their children's articulation errors at home.. She blogs about speech and language topics and provides additional information and free speech therapy resources at http://www.superstarspeech.com/