Specialized motor-speech treatment for children who have difficulty planning and coordinating the precise movements speech requires.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a relatively uncommon motor speech condition, affecting roughly 1 to 2 out of every 1,000 children. It's not a problem with understanding language or knowing what to say — a child with CAS usually knows exactly what they want to say. The difficulty is in the brain-to-mouth connection: the messages that tell the mouth's muscles how to move to form words don't come through consistently, which makes speech sound effortful, inconsistent, or hard to understand.
Children with apraxia know what they want to say but struggle to plan the movements.CAS can look a little different depending on a child's age.
Early signs often show up as limited sounds and words.CAS can only be diagnosed by a certified speech-language pathologist, through a hands-on evaluation of a child's intonation, oral-motor skills, and sound production. Because CAS can look similar to other speech and language difficulties early on, this evaluation is an important first step before starting therapy.
A specialist evaluation confirms the diagnosis.Therapy for CAS is built around frequent, focused practice — we typically recommend around ten 30-minute sessions a week, or five sessions a week at minimum, since consistent repetition is what helps rebuild those brain-to-mouth pathways. Sessions use engaging, play-based activities to practice sound production and coordination, tailored to each child's specific pattern of errors.
We also start with a comprehensive hearing evaluation, since ruling out a hearing difference is an important part of getting the full picture, and we keep families closely involved with practice strategies and education so progress continues between sessions.
Frequent, hands-on practice is the heart of treatment.You can schedule by call, text, or a quick online form — we'll set up your free consultation within 24 hours.
