Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Late talkers, as they are known, are kids who are not saying first words on time or may have a limited number of words that they use. Their younger siblings and peers may be surpassing their language development.

Kids who are not able to produce motor sequencing to generate speech into words easily, can’t imitate easily and typically have adequate receptive language (they understand everything) are often identified with developmental apraxia, otherwise known as childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Apraxia may be present on any level of sequencing; sounds, words, sentences, and interfere with reading and writing when they are school-aged. However, sometimes, there are other things going on, so those things must be ruled out or factored in, such as low tone resulting in dysarthria, autism and tongue tie.

Sometimes when kids have more than one thing going on, in addition to apraxia, it is important to use a variety of therapeutic techniques. Treatment techniques may include PROMPT cues, as well as linguistic and rhythmical approaches and even supplemental communication learning such as sign language or low tech picture communication use.