Golisano Children's Hospital / Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics / Condition Information / Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

Services In DBP

We do not treat children with CAS as their main diagnosis; however, we do treat children who have developmental disabilities as well as CAS.

Behavior Treatment Services - Provides assessment and short-term treatment for children and teens with developmental delay or disability and challenging behaviors.
Community Consultation Program - Provides technical assistance, training, and continuing education to schools, community and state agencies that provide services to children with learning and behavioral challenges.
OPWDD Community and Home Intervention and Response Program (CHIRP) - Provides services to individuals with a developmental or intellectual disability living in Monroe County with significant behavioral difficulties.

Related Services At URMC

Pediatric Occupational Therapy
Speech Pathology Department - Meets the needs of children who have difficulties with speech, communication, oral-motor control, and feeding/swallowing.

Resources

Books

Speaking of Apraxia by Leslie A. Lindsay ISBN: 9781606130612 Publication Date: 2012-04-01
The Mouth with a Mind of Its Own by Patricia Mervine; Nayan Soni (Illustrator) ISBN: 9780692202319 Publication Date: 2014-05-01
My Brother Is Very Special by Amy May ISBN: 9781412034593 Publication Date: 2004-06-01

Description

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder characterized by difficulty with motor planning for speech production. Children with CAS may have difficulty saying sounds and words because their brain has difficulty planning and coordinating the movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, and other articulators. A child with CAS usually knows what they want to say, but they struggle to say it due to difficulty with planning and coordinating the speech movements. Muscle weakness or paralysis is not a characteristic of CAS. Some children with CAS have little or no functional speech, whereas other children are verbal but have problems with intelligibility.

Diagnosis

If you suspect CAS, your child should be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with specialized knowledge and experience. The SLP will assess your child’s oral-motor skills, speech sound development, and other speech characteristics such as the melody or prosody of speech (for example, timing and stress). The SLP will look for signs of motor weakness, which is not a sign of CAS but can help in making or ruling out the diagnosis. They will pay particular attention to how your child coordinates and sequences speech sounds in speech and non-speech activities (for example, blowing bubbles). For very young children or children with very limited verbal speech, it may be difficult to determine if they have CAS. The SLP may also evaluate your child’s language skills as part of the evaluation to determine if they can understand more than they can produce. A child who is suspected of having CAS should also have an audiological evaluation to rule out hearing problems.

Associated Developmental and Learning Issues

CAS can result problems getting wants and needs met. This may make the child and family frustrated. CAS can also make it hard for children to be independent, make friends, or play with other children. Children with CAS are at risk for problems with reading and writing.

Treatments

Children with CAS tend to do better with intense, frequent, individual speech therapy. Treatment focus is on planning, sequencing, and coordinating for the production of speech. Multi-sensory feedback has been found be helpful, including visual, tactile (touch), and auditory cues. The SLP may recommend other ways to help your child communicate, such as gestures, picture boards, or computerized communication devices (augmentative and alternative communication).

How Many People Have CAS?

Currently, there is little data available on the prevalence of CAS.

Causes

We usually do not know the exact cause of CAS.