Do you have difficulty understanding what your child is trying to say? Do they have a limited repertoire of words or only able to form vowel sounds?
Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder in which your child’s motor planning and coordination of the oral musculature (mouth, lips, tongue, teeth, etc.) for speech production is impaired. Your child often knows what they want to say but is unable because of difficulties with motor planning. With apraxia of speech, the brain has difficulty with telling how the speech muscles should move for syllables and words. It is not a weakness of the musculature.
Although your child may present with speech sound distortions and substitutions similar to an articulation or phonological-based disorder, apraxia of speech is very different. Given the underlying differences, we aim to focus on improving the sequential movement of your child’s musculature for speech production to ensure clearer speech.
Common Symptoms of Apraxia of Speech:
- Shorter words are more easily understood than longer words.
- Your child may say the same word differently each time.
- Your child may be able to form only a few consonant or vowel sounds
- Your child may have more difficulty with natural speech versus procedural speech (e.g. numbers 1-10 and ABC's)
- Your child may have difficulty with imitation of speech.
- Your child may have a delayed onset of words and limited amount of words understood by others
- Your child may have groping movements when producing speech.
- Your child may have limited babbling.