What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

There are three main kinds of issues that SLPs see in a child, when looking at speech sounds. Articulation disorders are when a child is unable to produce a certain sound, because they do not know how to, or because they are unable to make the necessary movements in the articulators at a physical level. Phonological disorders are when a child exhibits particular sound substitutions and eliminations for certain sounds. And Childhood Apraxia of speech is when a child is unable to exhibit the correct motor planning / muscle coordination in the mind to make a sound.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is the one which has the most profound effect on a child's intelligibility, or ability to be understood. This is because when motor planning is affected, a child can hear the sound, and knows what sound they want to produce. And yet, it is not possible to produce it.

The main signs that could indicate that a child may have Childhood Apraxia of Speech are -

1. Groping movements with the mouth - this is a common sign, because it shows that a child is attempting to make a sound, but they are not quit able to coordinate the movements to do so.

2. No pattern in sound errors - whereas articulation disorders and phonological disorders have to do with very specific sounds, in CAS, errors cannot be so neatly analyzed. Sometimes, a consonant is there. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes syllables are deleted. And sometimes they are added. Errors with no clear explanation are more likely to be rooted in CAS.

3. Many sound errors -CAS therapy tends to take more time, because there are more issues to address

4. Mixing up vowels- Many of the common issues with phonology and articulation are rooted in incorrect consonants. Inability to produce certain vowels - especially because vowels tend to be much easier to produce - could be a sign that motor planning is an issue

What to do if you are concerned about the possibility of CAS in your child -

See an SLP! If you see the above signs, then an SLP will develop a complex treatment plan, which involves targeting words by shape (see the next posts under the "Childhood Apraxia of Speech" tab to learn more).

You will get particular words and word shapes to practice -because these will train motor planning required for speech, in a sequential manner.

Some of the word shapes that an SLP will practice with your child, to train motor planning, may include -

1. Reduplicated CVCV (mama, dada) - check out this CVCV reduplicated word worksheet!

2. CV (go, say, do) - check out this CV word worksheet!

3. VC (on, in, or) - check out this VC word worksheet!

4. VCV (away, okay, any) - check out this VCV word worksheet!

5. CVCV - not reduplication (puppy, mommy) - check out this CVCV2 word worksheet

6. CVC - assimilation / same beginning and end consonants (cook, dad, taught) - check out this CVC worksheet!

7. CVCVCV - three syllable words (banana, potato) - check out this CVCVCV worksheet!

If you are interested in seeing some of these word shapes, check out the "Read Say Dot" packet on Smarter Speech SLP's TPT store. This has the word shapes, as well as examples, that you can begin to practice at home - preferably with a solid plan in place to work with an SLP as well.

Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.