Basic information for parents about Apraxia

Apraxia is a neurologically based disorder, it is pretty rare and most of the time confused with other types of language disorders. Diagnosing a child with apraxia early is one of the most important factors in treating and correcting it. It is not something that a child will simply grow out of, and takes intensive and frequent speech therapy to help your child become a verbal communicator. Apraxia is a controversial diagnosis, as not all SLP’s and doctors believe that it is a disorder recognized in children, but only caused by some type of brain assault in adults or older children (by way of blood clot in the brain, stroke etc.). It has just recently become a diagnosis for children in the past 20 years. Not all SLP’s know how to treat children for apraxia, and children with apraxia don’t normally get much help from speech therapy that is designed for late talkers. Diagnosing a child with apraxia is best done by an evaluation by a pediatric neurologist and a Speech Language Pathologist.

1. Little or no babbling as an infant.
2. Receptive speech or ability is much further ahead developmentally than expressive language.
3. Consonant sounds have a limited repertoire.
4. Some possible feeding issues during infancy.
5. Most have vowel errors.
6. The child may grope or struggle to say a sound or word.
7. The longer the phrase or word, the more errors are made.
8. They may develop gestures or sign language to communicate.

This is Kimberly ... photo used with permission from her mother, Colleen. 
Thank you Colleen and Kimberly!!!

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