

For example, your child's speech-language pathologist may ask your child to listen carefully and watch him or her form the target word or phrase with his or her mouth. Speech-language pathologists may use different types of cues in speech therapy. Learning to say words or phrases takes children with CAS time and practice.īecause children with CAS have difficulties planning movements for speech, speech therapy often focuses your child's attention to the sound and feel of speech movements. It's important that children with CAS get a significant amount of practice saying words and phrases during each speech therapy session. Individual therapy allows your child to have more time to practice speech during each session. As your child improves, the frequency of speech therapy may be reduced.Ĭhildren with CAS generally benefit from individual therapy. When CAS is relatively severe, your child may need frequent speech therapy, three to five times a week. Your child's speech-language pathologist will usually provide therapy that focuses on practicing syllables, words and phrases. Speech-language pathologists may treat childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) with many therapies. Childhood apraxia of speech care at Mayo Clinic.Your child's speech-language pathologist may help your child be more accurate by providing cues, such as saying the word or sound more slowly or providing touch cues to his or her face. If your child can produce sentences, your child's speech-language pathologist will observe your child's melody and rhythm of speech, such as how he or she stresses syllables and words.

To evaluate your child's coordination of movement in speech, your child may be asked to repeat syllables such as "pa-ta-ka" or say words such as "buttercup." Your child's speech-language pathologist may evaluate your child's coordination and smoothness of movement in speech during speech tasks. Your child may be asked to name pictures to see if he or she has difficulty making specific sounds or speaking certain words or syllables. Your child's ability to make sounds, words and sentences will be observed during play or other activities. Your child's speech-language pathologist will observe how your child moves his or her lips, tongue and jaw in activities such as blowing, smiling and kissing. Low muscle tone usually isn't associated with CAS, but it may be a sign of other conditions. Your child's speech-language pathologist will examine your child's lips, tongue, jaw and palate for structural problems, such as tongue-tie or a cleft palate, or other problems, such as low muscle tone. Your doctor may order hearing tests to determine if hearing problems could be contributing to your child's speech problems. Your child's speech-language pathologist may be able to determine an appropriate treatment approach for your child, even if the diagnosis is initially uncertain. It's important to identify whether your child shows symptoms of CAS, because CAS is treated differently from other speech disorders. It can sometimes be difficult to diagnose CAS, especially when a child speaks very little or has difficulty interacting with the speech-language pathologist. The specific tests conducted during the evaluation will depend on your child's age, ability to cooperate and the severity of the speech problem.

It depends on the pattern of problems that are seen. Diagnosis of CAS isn't based on any single test or observation.
