Speech & Language Disorders

Apraxia of Speech (AOS):  Apraxia is a motor speech disorder that makes it hard to speak.  It is a neurological disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in producing speech and it can affect both adults and children.  In short, the brain knows what it wants to say, but cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech sound movements.  Apraxia of speech is not caused by weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles (the muscles of the jaw, tongue, lips, vocal folds, etc.).  The weakness or paralysis of these muscles is known as dysarthria.  

When diagnosed in children, the terms Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Developmental Apraxia of Speech, or Developmental Verbal Apraxia are utilized. The causes of Childhood Apraxia of speech are not well understood, however, children affected by AOS often have family members who have a history of a communication disorder or a learning disability.  This suggests that there may be genetic factors involved.  Childhood AOS also seems to affect more boys than girls.  If your child is having difficulties being understood because of his speech production, contact one of our speech therapists in West Sioux Falls, East Sioux Falls, Tea, Worthington Avera, Worthington Oxford, Brandon, , Hartford, or Central Sioux Falls for an evaluation to help your child on their way to communicating effectively.

When diagnosed in adults, it is usually an Acquired Apraxia of Speech, which is caused by damage to the parts of the brain that are involved in speaking and involves the loss or impairment of existing speech abilities.  It may result from a stroke, head injury, tumor, or other illness affecting the brain.  Acquired AOS may occur together with other conditions that are caused by damage to the nervous system.  One of these is dysarthria, as mentioned earlier.  Another is aphasia, which is a language disorder.  

Dysarthria:  Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder in which the muscles that are used to produce speech are damaged, paralyzed, or weakened. The person with dysarthria may have difficulties controlling their tongue, lip, or vocal fold muscles and may produce slurred speech. Muscles of breathing may also be involved making it difficult to produce appropriate vocal loudness. Brain damage causes dysarthria.  It can happen at birth or after an illness or injury.  Anything that causes brain damage can cause dysarthria, such as:

Articulation Disorders: Children may say some sounds the wrong way as they learn to talk.  They learn some sounds earlier, like p, m, or w.  Other sounds take longer to learn, like z, v, or sh.  Most children can say almost all speech sounds correctly by the time they are 4 years old.  A child who does not say sounds by the expected ages may have a speech sound disorder.  You may hear the terms “articulation disorder” and phonological disorder” to describe speech sound disorders like this.  

Your child may substitute one sound for another, leave sounds out, add sounds, or change a sound.  It can be hard for others to understand him.  Prairie Rehab’s Speech-Language Pathologists can evaluate your child’s speech to determine if these speech errors are normal for their age, or if they may benefit from some intervention to help them develop more age-appropriate speech production.  We also work closely with educational systems to ensure consistency of care between home and school-based therapy.