Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) Awareness

I am going to do the same Q&A as I did on my HIE Awareness post. If you missed that post you can check it out here.

Our daughter was diagnosed with CAS shortly before her 3rd birthday. My passion is to help others learn what exactly Apraxia is. Knowledge is power, right, so let’s jump right in.

What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Childhood Apraxia of Speech or CSA for short is a neurological disorder making it difficult for a child to speak. Generally children have an understanding of language and know what they want to say. However, they have difficulty learning and carrying out the complex sequenced movements that are necessary for intelligible speech.

What are the symptoms of CAS?

There are a variety of speech-related symptoms that are associated with Apraxia. In the list below I will touch on the most well known ones.

• Difficulty stringing syllables together in the appropriate order to make words, or inability to do so.
• Minimal babbling during infancy
• Difficulty saying long and complexed words.
• Speech inconsistencies, such as being able to say a sound or word properly at certain times but not others.
• Incorrect inflections or stresses o n certain sounds or words.
• Excessive use of nonverbal forms of communication.
• Distorting vowel sounds.
• Omitting consonants at the beginnings and ends of words.
• Seeming to struggle to make words.
• CAS rarely occurs alone. It is often accompanied by other language or cognitive deficits.

What causes CAS?

CAS is a result from brain damage to the areas of the brain that control speech.

Can CAS be cured?

This is a tricky answer. CAS can get better from therapy with a speech-language pathologist. Some children have been able to overcome apraxia with the proper therapy and some have not. It all really depends on the seriousness of the diagnosis.

All children deserve a voice. We as parents need to make sure we are doing all we can, to help make that happen. Even if it is ASL, that is also language and that may well be their voice.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article