“What is apraxia of speech in toddlers?”
My granddaughter is only 3 years old and was diagnosed with apraxia of speech. I've never heard of this though. What does this mean?
6 Answers
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.
Terlenda Lassiter
Speech-Language Pathologist
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
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.
