Dyspraxia or Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. The child knows what they want to say, but the brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words. There is no cure for Dyspraxia although significant improvement can be made with intense practice of speech sounds. For children who meet the criteria, I use ReST or Rapid Syllable Transition training. Other approaches also work if the child does not meet the criteria. The terms Dyspraxia, Apraxia and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are used interchangeably.

General signs to look for include the following:

A Very Young Child
• Does not coo or babble as an infant
• First words are late, and they may be missing sounds
• Only a few different consonant and vowel sounds (reduced repertoire of speech sounds for their age)
• Difficulty combining sounds; may have long pauses between sounds
• Simplifies words by replacing difficult sounds with easier ones or by deleting difficult sounds (although all children do this, the child with apraxia of speech does so more often)
• May have problems eating

An Older Child
• Makes inconsistent sound errors that are not the result of immaturity
• Can understand language much better than he or she can talk
• Has difficulty imitating speech, but imitated speech is more clear than spontaneous speech
• May appear to be groping (visible struggle) when attempting to produce sounds or to coordinate the lips, tongue, and jaw for purposeful movement
• Has more difficulty saying longer words or phrases clearly than shorter ones
• Appears to have more difficulty when he or she is anxious
• Is hard to understand, especially to an unfamiliar listener
• Sounds choppy, monotonous, or stresses the wrong syllable or word