Childhood Apraxia of Speech: How to Do Speech Therapy for CAS

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a rare, neurologically-based speech disorder where the child knows what he wants to say but the message gets mixed up in the motor-planning and execution phase so the sounds come out all wrong.

What are the Symptoms of Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Though the diagnosis of CAS is relatively new, experts have agreed that CAS usually includes these 3 generally-agreed upon components:

• Inconsistent errors on consonants and vowels in repeated productions of syllables or words(meaning that if the child says the same word many times, it may sound differently each time)


• Lengthened and disrupted coarticulatory transitions (meaning that the child’s speech sounds choppy or disconnected due to trouble transitioning between sounds or between words in older children)


• Inappropriate prosody, especially in the realization of lexical or phrasal stress between sounds and syllables (meaning that the rhythm, intonation, and stress of speech may sound off, the child may sound robotic, have incorrect phrasing, or stress the wrong words or syllables)

Listen to the Podcast on Childhood Apraxia of Speech:

Sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what you should be working on with your children with childhood apraxia of speech.  In this podcast episode, I break down speech sound learning in different levels.  Then, I give practical therapy activities that can be used for each level.  Click the play button below to listen to the entire episode.  Or, scroll down to see the notes below.

Free Therapy Levels Chart:

To get started, download the free PDF of the Skill Set Charts for Childhood Apraxia of Speech.  This will break down a nice order to help you determine what speech skill to work on next with a child with CAS: