PARENT ASSISTANT SYSTEM TO DISCOVER CHILD'S SPEECH APRAXIA

Abstract

The Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) also known as developmental verbal Dyspraxia (DVD) is an unusual speech disorder in which a child struggles on realizing accurate mouth, jaw and tongue movements in order to speak. Children with CAS have problems saying words and their correct pronunciation, phrases, and sentences. It's important to know that CAS is just a label for a speech disorder. In other words, the child's brain has to learn how to make plans that will tell his or her speech muscles how to move the lips, jaw and tongue in ways that result in accurate speaking. At the same time, these movements must ensure that the speech is occurring at normal speed and rhythm. In childhood apraxia of speech, the brain struggles to develop plans for speech movement. As a result, children with CAS don't learn accurate movements for speech with normal ease. In CAS, the speech muscles aren't weak, but they don't perform normally because the brain has difficulty leading or harmonizing the movements. A child with apraxia cannot move his or her lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds correctly because the message from the brain to the mouth is disrupted. Not all children with CAS are the same. It is important that the child must be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) who has knowledge of CAS to rule out other causes of speech problems.There is something in the child’s brain that is not allowing messages to get to the mouth muscles to produce speech correctly. In most cases, the cause is unknown. However, some possible causes include: Genetic disorders or syndromes, Stroke or brain injury. It is important to note that while CAS may be referred to as "developmental apraxia," it is not a disorder that children simply "outgrow." For many developmental speech disorders, children learn sounds in a typical order, just at a slower pace. In CAS, children do not follow typical patterns and will not make progress without treatment. An audiologist should perform a hearing evaluation to rule out hearing loss as a possible cause ofthe child’s speech difficulties.A certified-SLP with knowledge and experience with CAS conducts an evaluation. This will assess the child's oral-motor abilities, melody of speech, and speech sound development. The SLP can diagnose CAS and rule out other speech disorders, unless only a limited speech sample can be obtained making a firm diagnosis challenging.