Speech dyspraxia is a neurological speech sound disorder. The ability of the child to make precise and consistent sounds, syllables and words is disrupted. The word praxis means planned movement and children with speech dyspraxia have difficulty with programming and planning speech movements. Children are born with dyspraxia and it is treatable. Other names for this disorder include: developmental verbal apraxia, cyspraxia, verbal apraxia and articulatory apraxia.
Cause
The exact cause of speech dyspraxia is unknown. The muscles of the mouth work correctly, but the messages from the brain to the muscles is incomplete. Children with specific brain injuries have verbal dyspraxia, which leads some scientists to believe it is a neurological disorder. Others believe the disorder is related to the child's language development. Since developmental speech disorders appear more often in males than females and in some families more often than others, dyspraxia may have a genetic mode of transmission.
Symptoms
Numerous speech characteristics and symptoms present themselves in speech dyspraxia. Children with dyspraxia have a difficult time putting sounds and syllables together to form words. More problems arise with longer words. Sometimes, a child will be able to say a particular word correctly, while other times they cannot. These children usually understand language completely but cannot use language to express themselves. Often, they imitate speech, rather than speaking spontaneously. The speech errors are inconsistent and the children struggle to find the right mouth positions for the sounds.
Diganosis
Speech dyspraxia does not have specific diagnostic criteria. A list of diagnostic features is used as criteria identifying dyspraxia. Findings on both speech and nonspeech domains are important. Parents and professionals play a role in diagnosis. Speech is observed over time and formal testing is performed by a speech-language pathologist. No single test can be used to diagnose speech dyspraxia. As contributing factors are ruled out, the presence of certain symptoms can be analyzed.
Treatment
Children with dyspraxia need frequent intensive one-on-one speech therapy. No single treatment regimen has prove effective. Usually, therapy is tailored to the child. Parents can help children by using word repetition and games. More sounds are produced when the pressure is reduced and making new sounds becomes fun. Also, playing with whistles, bubbles and musical instruments helps with coordination of facial and respiratory movements for speech.
Considerations
Undiagnosed or untreated speech dyspraxia can lead to emotional and behavioral problems. Children become frustrated from not being understood. As new tasks are introduced, they may not be able to learn them, falling further behind in development. Some dyspraxia children have difficulty reading and spelling. Fine motor tasks, such as cutting and writing, may be challenging. A parent needs to be supportive, creating self esteem in a positive atmosphere. Communicating with sign language, pictures or gestures may reduce stressful language frustrations and allow progressive learning. Just because a child uses another mode of communication, it does not mean the child will not want to learn to talk.
