APRAXIA

Apraxia or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a neurologically based speech disorder which causes motor programming and planning difficulties for movements needed for speech. Individuals with CAS demonstrate difficulty in producing voluntary movements and sequences needed for speech. CAS may affect the following areas: speech articulation, coordination, rate, rhythm and timing. Children with apraxia often exhibit groping of the articulators and have difficulty placing the tongue, lips, and jaw in the correct position for speech. Speech may sound vowel-like with few consonants and contain inconsistent errors such as substitution, omissions, or additions of speech sounds. Individuals with apraxia experience greater difficulty and increased errors as length of utterances increase due to the increased demand to motor plan. CAS is not caused by muscle weakness and structural abnormalities; however, CAS can be present with other disorders caused by muscle weakness or dysfunction such as dysarthria.