Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a motor speech planning disorder that can occur in childhood or as a result of a neurological injury. It is also known as acquired apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia, or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Individuals with apraxia have difficulty achieving the correct oral motor movements needed to communicate their intended verbal message. Even though the person may know exactly what her or she wants to say, the motor planning system experiences a breakdown, and he or she is unable to plan and sequence the sounds to produce a clear verbal message. Though the person is unable to move his or her tongue, jaw, and lips in the correct way, it is not because of weakness. Apraxia may be present if:

• Longer words containing multiple syllables are difficult to say
• The person mostly produces only vowels, while consonants often omitted from words
• Sound production and sound errors are inconsistent
• Difficulty imitating words
• Groping for sounds is observed, which may look like a person trying to say sounds/words without producing any
• Prosody and intonation patterns may sound unusual

*Our Clinicians are trained in P.R.O.M.P.T. (PROMPTS for restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets)