Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult for children to speak and reduces their overall intelligibility (how well their speech is understood by others). The child knows what they want to say but has difficulty programming that plan into actual sound sequences necessary for speech. This disorder is characterized by the inconsistencies of errors in the child’s speech and by affected prosody (the “melody” of their voice).

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a rare motor speech disorder that requires specialized treatment. The overall goal of therapy is to increase speech intelligibility through improved motor learning. Based on Principles of Motor Learning (PML), therapy will include high amounts of practice focused on functional speech targets that are important to the child and family. The therapist will begin by offering a high amount of support to ensure accuracy of movement through the sounds in the word, and will fade these supports to increase independence of productions. Even and smooth speech is the goal!

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