Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
CAS is neurological speech motor disorder that affects a child’s ability to say sounds, syllables, and words. It is not caused by muscle weakness, but rather, because of motor coordination and movements of oral articulators (e.g. lips, tongue, jaw) which impact clarity of speech.
What are the Hallmarks of CAS?
- Late talking
- Difficult to understand & slow rate of speech
- Difficulty imitating words
- Limited number of consonant sounds
- Makes vowel sound errors
- Sound errors are unpredictable & not phonological based
- May produce a correct sound in a word in one word, but then unable to produce the same sound in another word (e.g. “B” in ball, but not “B” in boy)
- Groping observed in oral structures (e.g. mouth, lips searching for placement) of speech sound
- May have problems eating
What advanced treatment methods do Kara Dodds and Associates therapists use to treat CAS?
- Kaufman Speech Praxis Programs: teaching children to combine consonants and vowels to form words while controlling for oral-motor difficulty using a series of cards targeting syllable shapes.
- Talk Tools Oral Motor Programs: Targeting oral placement by using a multisensory approach by implementing oral motor activities paired with speech production.
- PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets): A tactile-kinesthetic approach that uses touch to position the jaw, tongue, lips by manually guiding them to obtain proper oral motor placements.
- CPPA (Cycles Approach): Combines traditional and linguistic approaches together where primary sound patterns are targeted first and cycled through to other sound patterns.
At Kara Dodds & Associates, our specialized therapists treat CAS holistically through a variety of methods. If you believe your child would benefit from our therapy services please contact us at 619.692.0622 or click the button below to set up an appointment.