Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

Question 1

What is CAS?

Answer 1

Childhood Apraxia of Speech:
A childhood articulation disorder of unknown etiology not caused by neuromuscular weakness
(Hard to diagnose/differentiate from articulation disorders/phonological processes)

Question 2

Name 8 characteristics of CAS

Answer 2

• impaired motor planning and programming
• unable to automatically learn motor plans necessary for rapid, accurate speech production
• moderate to severe intelligibility problems
• inconsistent sound errors
• unusual articulation errors
• better at word level than sentence level
• typical errors
• resonance problems
• flat prosody (aprosody/dyprosody)
• sequencing errors (metathesis)
• groping/silent posturing behaviors

Question 3

Name 5 associated problems with CAS

Answer 3

• learning disabilities
• expressive language delays
• behavioral problems (due to frustration)
• decreased oral awareness (low stereagnosis)
• oral and non-verbal apraxia (blowing out a candle, sticking tongue out)
• soft neurological signs (limb apraxia- trouble with planned movement in non-automatic tasks)
• SLOW progress