Apraxia of speech (AOS)—also known as acquired apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia, or childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) when diagnosed in children—is a speech sound disorder. Someone with AOS has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently. AOS is a neurological disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements involved in producing speech.
Speaking involves a complex set of muscle movement patterns. The muscles are not weak but they will not work properly when the person tries to speak.
Depending on the severity of the apraxia of speech, individuals may have difficulty producing the odd word, to having great difficulty producing any clear speech at all. Symptoms include groping for sounds, making inconsistent errors and distorting sounds.
Individuals may benefit from the input of a Speech and Language Therapist who would provide frequent and intensive speech therapy to target speech clarity. In severe cases of apraxia individuals may benefit from the use of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication).Please see our blog on AAC for further information.
Some strategies that may help individuals are:
- Save energy by speaking face to face with people. Don’t try to speak from room to room and don’t try to compete with other noises such as the TV or radio. Find somewhere quiet to talk
- Make sure you have someone’s full attention before starting to tell them important information and be prepared to repeat messages
- Make the most of your best times of day to speak to people
- Pace yourself by planning frequent rest times; talking when you are tired will be additionally hard
- It can be useful to put the emphasis on communicating the message rather than the accuracy of the speech sounds
- Tell people that you have a difficulties with speaking
- Don’t hide your communication problems. If people are aware of your difficulties, they will be more understanding and you will not be so anxious about trying to conceal them
- Try to remain calm.
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