What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) ?
- Sep 25, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 9, 2020
Recently, I have come across a child with childhood apraxia of speech during my placement. The child was bright and cheerful, he was diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech and this opens up my knowledge on CAS. We examined his speech production and indeed tome signs and symptoms clearly identify the diagnosis.
What is the problem?
To begin with, CAS is a motor speech sound disorder. That means, neither is there a language issue nor are there issues with understandings of sounds. They know perfectly how sounds should be produced, just that their muscles do not allow them to produce accurately. The motor system is the culprit. Their ability to plan and program their motor movement to produce speech is impaired: they have difficulty making plans in the brain to move their oral muscles precisely when producing for instance the word 'apple'. Instead of our habitual way of saying apple, they may put the stress in the first syllable first or miss it out.
After all, speaking requires about 100 muscles in our lips, tongue and neck so as you could imagine, an interruption in the system to control these muscles can be problematic.
Prevalence
CAS is rare, affecting 1-2 children in a population of 1000. The cause is unknown, despite studies more leaning towards a genetic factor such as gene mutation, further evidence is needed.
Red flags (ASHA, 2007, p. 43):
Similar to autism, symptoms vary among individuals, but not to a great extend. CAS can be hard to identify without assessment and analysis. Should you be worried about your child, please seek a speech pathologist.
3 distinctive features include:
Inconsistency in consonant and vowel errors across multiple attempts of production of the same word or syllable, they can say the word differently every time.
lengthened and disrupted coarticulation (one speech sound affecting other when trying to produce 2 or more sound together, e.g. the word 'jam' requires 2 sounds /a/ and /m/ to be produced at the same time).
Problems in the pattern of rhythm and sound in speech: stress is misplaced across words. e.g. pudding into pudding
More details on symptoms and signs will be listed in our guide on Free Downloads. Stay tuned!
Below is a video showing different severity levels of CAS, see if you can identify some key features as a little quiz.
Hope you have enjoyed reading this blog as I did. CAS is uncommon yet a concerning disorder among children. Features of CAS are generally the same, but not every child has the same combination of all the features, diagnosis may need to be confirmed with detailed assessment and analysis.
Have a great day and don't forget to smile as usual!
Joyce Lau
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