You must have heard about common speech problems in children but to make sure that your child receives the best treatment, it is important to identify the problem. Speech Apraxia happens to be one of them and is a disorder in which the brain has difficulty creating movements for speech. The coordination between the brain and speech muscles are affected and although the muscles aren’t weak, the movement isn’t normal which impact a child’s communication skills. A child with CAS will not learn speech sounds in typical order and will not make progress without treatment. It can take a lot of work, but the child’s speech can improve.
There are other speech disorders that are often confused with speech apraxia (childhood apraxia of speech) but this is what you should know about it to identify it in time.
Symptoms
Not all children with CAS are the same. Your child may show some or all of the signs below.
- Limited development of vocabulary
- Delay in forming first words
- Obvious distortion between Vowel and consonant
- Visible difficulty in moving jaw, lips and tongue in an attempt to speak
- Inability to pronounce the same word the right way and making different mistakes in each attempt
- Not being able to use all sounds
- can say shorter words more clearly than longer words.
- difficulty with fine motor skills;
- delayed language; or
- problems with reading, spelling, and writing.
Causes
There is no particular cause that has been discovered behind childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The possible reasons could be stroke, infection or trauma or could also be a genetic or metabolic condition.
Prevention
Working on how to move those muscles to say sounds will help. Though the long-term problems and struggles can be eased when this condition is identified at an early stage. If you have been observing any of the above-listed symptoms, it is best to consult a doctor to figure out a suitable way of treatment as that also helps prevent any complications.
The effectiveness of the treatment can vary from child to child. Their improvement is also dependant on support from their parents and efforts put into their treatment.
For better understanding, you can always speak to your child’s speech therapist to know how you can help your child out.
