Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological childhood speech disorder in which difficulty with timing and coordination of the lips, tongue, and jaw affect the precision and consistency of the movement sequences underlying speech sound production.
Children with CAS exhibit speech production that is characterized by the following:
- Inconsistent errors on consonants and vowels in repetition (child says the word accurately, but cannot repeat it without errors)
- Lengthened and disrupted transitions between sounds and syllables (groping movement)
- Inappropriate prosody (intonation)
(American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, n.d.)
Treatment
Treatment for CAS should utilize a motor-programming approach, including many repetitions of speech movements to help the child acquire skills to accurately, consistently, and automatically produce sequences of speech sounds.
The goal of treatment is to help the child achieve their highest level of intelligibility (i.e., how well their speech is understood by another listener) and comprehensibility in conversation (i.e., how well they are understood overall).
Additional Resource
ASHA: Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Reference
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Childhood Apraxia of Speech. (Practice Portal). Retrieved November 15, 2021, from www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Childhood-Apraxia-of-Speech/