Parents are naturally concerned about their child being “labeled.” Some are even so afraid of having a label put on their child that they resist getting a professional evaluation of the child’s difficulties. Other parents are actually relieved when they get a label to put on their puzzling concerns. So what is in a label and when is it useful? How Not to Use Labels First of all, ...[Read More]
Don’t Label My Child! Are Labels Helpful or Harmful?
Apraxia (CAS) – A Motor Speech Disorder
Most of us enjoy trying to recite a tongue twister faster and faster till the words get all “twisted” in our mouths. To the child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), the simplest word may be a tongue twister. Hundreds of quick nerve impulses are needed to produce a single syllable. With that in mind, it is truly amazing that most children seem to learn to talk so relatively easily! For the chi ...[Read More]
CAS – What We Can Learn from Two Case Studies
In Childhood Apraxia of Speech, CAS, the brain has difficulty telling the mouth what to do to produce speech sounds. We might say that the messages from the brain get mixed up before they reach the mouth. The child has trouble imitating the precise movements required to say sounds and syllables. Simple words become tongue twisters. It is a unique disorder, which requires intensive speech therapy. ...[Read More]