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Childhood speech apraxia is a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult for children to speak. In order for speech to occur, messages need to go from your brain to your mouth. These messages tell the muscles how and when to move to make sounds. When a child has speech apraxia, the messages from the brain do not get through correctly to the mouth. Children with the diagnosis of childhood apraxia generally have a good understanding of language and know what they want to say. However, they have difficulty learning or carrying out the complex sequenced movements of the mouth and tongue that are necessary for intelligible speech. The problem is not how the child thinks, but how the brain tells the mouth muscles to move.
Does your child have apraxia?
Not all children with childhood speech apraxia are the same. Your child may show some or all of the signs below. You should request an appointment with our pediatric speech therapist if your child is 3 years old or older and does not always say words the same way every time, tends to put the stress on the wrong syllable or word, distorts or changes sounds, or speech is difficult to understand and can say shorter words more clearly than longer words.
Children with childhood speech apraxia may have other problems including:
- difficulty with fine motor skills
- delayed language
- problems with reading, spelling, and writing.
Help is available
If your child is not able to move their lips or tongue in the right ways or is not able to say words and sentences that are understandable, they may have childhood speech apraxia . Our pediatric speech therapists want to help your child’s speech improve. Request an appointment at Southern Pediatric Therapy Clinic today.
