Wondering what is apraxia of speech? This page will give you information and resources that can inform and help.
Apraxia of Speech – May 14th is Apraxia Awareness Day!
Both Mr. T and Mr. F have Childhood Apraxia of Speech. In simple terms, it’s a neuro-motor planning disorder which means they know what they want to say and how to say it but there is a disconnect somewhere along the pathway from their brain to their mouth muscles. Apraxia has many facets and many degrees of severity. It can also come with many co-diagnoses like SPD, APD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc. We are blessed to have a wonderful team of speech and occupational therapists working with the boys and with me so I can continue to help them at home.
See all our Gifted and Special Needs resources here.
What is Apraxia?
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that first becomes apparent as a young child is learning speech. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech have great difficulty planning and producing the precise, highly refined and specific series of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw, and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech. It’s hard to determine how common is childhood apraxia of speech but reading and learning about it can be helpful.
Apraxia of speech is sometimes called verbal apraxia, developmental apraxia of speech, or verbal dyspraxia. No matter what name is used, the most important concept is the root word “praxis.” Praxis means planned movement.
To some degree or another, a child with the diagnosis of apraxia of speech has difficulty programming and planning speech movements. Apraxia of speech is a specific speech disorder. This difficulty in planning speech movements is the hallmark or “signature” of childhood apraxia of speech.
The challenge and difficulty that children with apraxia have in creating speech can seem very perplexing to parents, especially when they observe the skill of learning to speak developing seemingly without effort in other children. (Direct quote from the Apraxia-kids.org Family Start Guide)
There are options for apraxia treatment and there is a ton of great reading resources to find out more about it.
Please check out the links below to learn more about apraxia of speech:
Apraxia: The Invisible Elephant in the Room
5 Truths Apraxia Will Teach You
Surviving the Holidays with Apraxia
Toys we use for speech practice at home
Our Homeschooling Must Haves for Preschoolers with Apraxia
What I Mean When I Say “I’m Fine”: Special Needs Parenting
When You Forget to Sing (Encouragement)
While it can be a lot of information to process, reading and researching can be helpful to understand exactly what apraxia is. The links above are great resources to find out further information and can be quite informative.
For even more resources, here are a few other options to read as well.
Resources to learn more about apraxia in speech:
Apraxia Kids/CASANA – A great site full of information, resources and FAQs.
The MAYO clinic page, Dr. Strand is the leading researcher for CAS and new treatments.
