March 3, 2008
- Does Your Child Have Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)?
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), is synonymous with developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) and dyspraxia. This is a motor speech disorder. Children with developmental apraxia have difficulty coordinating and sequencing their articulators (mouth, lips, jaw, tongue) to produce sounds, syllables and words. This is not at all due to muscle weakness, but rather it is due to poor communication between the brain and the muscles that are needed for speech. In other words, the area of the brain that is responsible for telling the muscles what to do and how to move to make partiuclar sounds is not fully developed or possibly damaged. In adults, apraxia of speech is caused by a stroke or other brain damage. In children the cause is not so clear. Speech apraxia is only related to speech activities and so non-speech activities that use the same muscles such as coughing, chewing and swallowing are performed just fine
