Apraxia Of Speech

Question 1

What is Apraxia of Speech? (AoS)

Answer 1

Impairment in motor speech programming/coordinating with no weakness, paralysis. Difficult for children to plan and program the movement sequences needed for speech. Poor intelligibility and inconsistent errors is also a key factor.

Question 2

What are signs of AoS in children younger than 3?

Answer 2

• does not coo or babble as an infant,
• says their first words later than you think they should,
  -says only a few different words,
• has trouble putting words together,
• puts long pauses between sounds,
• does not always say a word the same way,
• has some problems eating.

Question 3

What are sings of AoS in children 3+

Answer 3

• Inconsistent errors,
• receptive language much stronger than expressive language,
• difficulty with volitional movement (difficulty with imitation, less difficulty with spontaneous movement),
• groping (deviant movement of lips, tongue, or jaw to produce sounds),
• multisyllabic words are more difficult than less complex words,
• reduced intelligibility,
• inappropriate prosody (sounds choppy/flat,
• stress not used appropriately).

Question 4

Speech Sound Asssessment:

Answer 4

• Assess if vowels are distorted, - check sound in isolation and in syllable (breakdown with complexity of syllabic),
• test coordination of articulatory/precision of movements in words,
• assess stress in words (PREsent vs preSENT),
• standardized tests (Kaufman speech praxis test for children and verbal motor production assessment for children).

Question 5

AoS intervention: REST

Answer 5

Rapid syllable transition treatment (REST), uses non-words (kuba or toonde) to teach transitions between sounds and syllables and to improve, focus on beats (stress and smoothness),

Question 6

AoS treatment NDP3

Answer 6

Nuffield dyspraxia program (NDP3), Motor learning approach (works hierarchy)

Question 7

AoS treatment: Layers

Answer 7

(single sounds, CV words, CVCV words, CVC words, multisyllabic words, consonant cluster words, phrases and sentences, connected speech.
Dynamic temporal and tactile cueing:

Question 8

What is dynamic temporal and tactile cueing?

Answer 8

intense, motor based, drill-like treatment, focuses on movement (rather than sound), SLP selects speech movement patterns to work on and selects words that focus on that movement, first simultaneous production (then direct imitation, then imitation after delay, and then spontaneous production), Cues are used (saying words slowly, in unison, modeling mouth movement, tactile cues.

Question 9

What is an alternative approach to AoS instead of motor-based speech treatment?

Answer 9

Alternative and Augmentative communication training