“What is apraxia of speech in toddlers?”

Thank you for your question.... a very common question which many parents and grandparents ask.. The word "Praxis" means movement. Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a speech disorder which is typically related to a child's ability to move the speech muscles in a coordinated smooth fashion from one place to another as needed for making sounds in a sequence to produce a word. If you think of a word as a sequence of movements say, "Mama" the child easily knows to close his/ her lips to produce /m/ then open the jaw to produce /a/ which is a fairly easy sequence. Some children are able to say the early developing reduplicated words as in, 'mama, dada, baba" yet are challenged when the sequence of movements are more complicated as in "mommy" or "bye" ( with tendency to say, "bah") A seasoned Speech -Language Pathologist should be able to assist your granddaughter in learning the words she needs to get her daily needs. Speech therapy is frequently provided on an individual basis providing tactile input ( that is, feeling the movement and placement) for "feeling" the sound placement/ production. Further, oftentimes, we use "sign language" or "picture supports " to assist in getting the child's needs met which may alleviate some frustration for both the child and the caregivers. I would ask to observe her therapy sessions as well to gain insight regarding the methods which help her progress in her speech production. for further information there are websites such as, *Apraxia-Kids.org* which may further assist in learning more about CAS. with kind regards, Anne M Ferraro, MS CCC SLP Speech -Language Pathologist

Apraxia is a motor disorder that causes difficulty with motor planning of the muscles we use to produce speech.

In simplest terms, it means there is a disconnect between the brain and the messages sent to the muscles for articulating words/sounds. Kind of like the brain formulates the idea, and sends the message to muscles but either the message gets mixed up or the muscles misinterpret the message. Does she also have limb apraxia or other underlying conditions?

In order for speech to occur, messages need to go from your brain to your mouth. These messages tell the muscles how and when to move to make sounds. When a child has apraxia of speech, the messages do not get through correctly. She might not be able to move their lips or tongue in the right ways, even though her muscles are not weak. A child with CAS knows what they want to say. The problem is not how the child thinks, but how the brain tells the mouth muscles to move. Make sure the diagnosis came from Speech Language Pathologist after receiving an evaluation.

Childhood apraxia of speech is when a child has trouble correctly producing syllables and words. A child diagnosed with this is likely having difficulty in their ability to motor plan how to move their lips, teeth, jaw, mouth and other articulators involved in making a target sound. They benefit from seeing a speech language pathologist to help them.

Apraxia affects the connection of speech from her brain to the muscle coordination in her mouth to make the right sounds at the right time. For example, if she tried to imitate “p-p-p," it might come out as “m-t-p.” With this diagnosis, she should receive speech therapy.

Ali Matisse, MS CCC-SLP

Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a disorder related to the oral motor movements for producing speech. The breakdown occurs when the child tries to speak but the motor planning for the ability to speak is impaired. There are some very successful treatments for AOS and working with a speech therapist who is familiar with this problem is highly recommended.