Apraxia Therapy
What will Creative Speech Therapy do to help my child speak?
First, we will complete a thorough evaluation to determine your child’s current level of functioning. This includes an examination of the structures of the mouth, collection of a language sample and sound inventory, and thorough investigation of background, medical history, and family history. Once we understand your child’s current speech and language needs, we will start therapy meeting your child where they are and then build from there.
Finally, we will treat your child using hand selected, kid friendly, and research based interventions. We also teach you how to promote better speech clarity with your child at home.
We may implement the following techniques as appropriate:
- Play Therapy
- Phonological Processing Therapy
Does my child have red flags for Apraxia of Speech?
Birth to 1 year?
- Decreased cooing or babbling.
- Other may comment on what a “quiet baby” you have
- May have feeding difficulties
- My baby’s first words appear late (after 14 months) or not at all. If first words to appear, they are often “easy” sounds, replaced with even easier one (ex: “I” for “hi”)
One to Three Years
- Understands most of what is said, but cannot verbalize well
- Cannot correctly use sounds Difficulty imitating words and phrases
- Messy and distracted eating
- Melody of speech is affected
- Struggles with “searching” for the right word (may see “groping” with their mouth)
- Leave sounds out of words such as “coo-ie” for “cookie”
- The longer the phrase, the more unintelligible your child is
- May have developed an elaborate nonverbal communication system
Source: Leslie A. Lindsay (Speaking of Apraxia- A Parent Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech)
