Apraxia of Speech Vs. Dysarthria

Apraxia

            Apraxia of speech (AOS) refers to a neurogenic speech disorder that is caused by central nervous system (CNS) damage. AOS is associated with impairment to motor planning and/or programming. Although there is no weakness of paralysis of the muscles, the CNS damage makes it difficult to program and precise movements necessary for smooth articulated speech.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is pediatric speech sound disorder associated with impaired accuracy and consistency of movements underlying speech. These individuals demonstrate sensorimotor difficulties in positioning and sequentially moving muscles for the volitional production of speech. It is hard for these individuals to plan and program the movement sequences and they frequently show groping behaviors and poor intelligibility due to inconsistent and multiple articulation errors.

• Children with CAS usually show:
  • Slow, effortful speech
  • Prolonged speech sounds
  • Repetition of sounds and syllables
  • Most difficulty with consonant clusters followed by fricatives, affricates, stops and nasals