Lakeshore Speech provides apraxia of speech therapy for children and adults. Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological childhood speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits (e.g., abnormal reflexes, abnormal tone). CAS may occur as a result of known neurological impairment, in association with complex neurobehavioral disorders of known or unknown origin, or as an idiopathic neurogenic speech sound disorder. The core impairment in planning and/or programming spatiotemporal parameters of movement sequences results in errors in speech sound production and prosody.
Adults may acquire apraxia of speech as a result of disease or injury.
People with apraxia of speech know what words they want to say, but their brains have difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words. They may say something completely different, even made up words. For example, a person may try to say "kitchen," but it may come out "bipem" or even "chicken." The person may recognize the error and try again, sometimes getting it right, but sometimes saying something else entirely. This can become quite frustrating for the person. It may be hard to understand a person with apraxia of speech. Apraxia of speech can be mild or severe. People with apraxia may have:
Apraxia can occur in conjunction with dysarthria (muscle weakness affecting speech production) or aphasia (language difficulties related to neurological damage). Contact us if you are looking for services related to apraxia of speech in children or adult.
