Dyspraxia is a motor programming disorder(the planning of actions). The brain has problems planning and/or executing the movements needed for either or both swallowing and speech. Speech sounds are harder to produce or they may be distorted and joining sounds and syllables to make words is even more difficult. People who have dyspraxia usually have a better understanding of what they hear (comprehension) than their ability to talk.
Apraxia of speech is often used instead of the more general term dyspraxia. It relates particularly to the type of dyspraxia that affects making sounds and articulating words and sentences. In children it can be called verbal dyspraxia, verbal apraxia, developmental dyspraxia, oral apraxia, dyspraxia or apraxia or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). In some countries Speech Pathologists use CAS as the most accurate term when referring to children with these difficulties.
Apraxia of speech is when children or adults have difficulty forming and producing the sounds they want to say, putting the sounds into words and then putting the words into sentences.
Apraxia of speech is often associated with other oral difficulties including chewing, eating, sucking, blowing and imitating facial expressions.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech is sometimes used as the correct term to use when referring to the dyspraxia (or apraxia) in chidren, when it causes difficulty with talking.
The term Childhood Apraxia of Speech can be interchangeable with terms such as apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia, verbal dyspraxia. oral dyspraxia, and developmental dyspraxia.
It refers specifically to the subtype of dyspraxia when children find it hard to plan and execute the movements for clear, articulate speech. They have difficulty making the sounds of speech, and joining them into words and sentences.
Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech usually understand others better than they can talk.
Developmental dyspraxia used when the disorder occurs in children. In adults, apraxia or dyspraxia is usually called “acquired” as it results from brain injury. It is usually congenital in children (ie they are born with the disorder). Disorders that are observed as a child is growing (or developing) are referred to as “developmental”.
Children with developmental dyspraxia find it hard to learn to talk and the normal course of language development doesn’t occur as expected. The normal milestones for speech development are not reached at the expected time. They will have difficulty making any or all of the specific speech sounds, and the sounds that they are able to produce may be distorted. They find it harder than other children in learning new words and joining up words into phrases or sentences. They may or may not also have difficulty using all the oral muscles to do actions such as chewing, blowing and sucking.
Verbal dyspraxia is sometimes used instead of the terms oral dyspraxia or oral apraxia. In children it can also refer to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Verbal dyspraxia often occurs in adults who have had a CVA (stroke), brain lesion, head injury or neurological disease.
Verbal dyspraxia results in minor or significant difficulty in talking. It is hard to make speech sounds and to join them into words and then into sentences, or to imitate words and sounds. People with verbal dyspraxia usually understand more than they can say.
Oral dyspraxia involves difficulty using the muscles of the face and especially around and inside the mouth. People with oral dyspraxia find it hard to imitate other people’s facial expressions and to do actions that involve the mouth, including chewing, manipulating the tongue, sucking and blowing.
Motor dyspraxia involves the brain not being able to plan and execute bodily actions. For every action to occur, the brain needs to make a ‘motor program’ (plan) and carry it out (execute) using all the right muscles in just the right way. The brain either does not understand all the information it needs to plan the movement or there is a disruption to carrying it out. It is sometimes called a motor learning disability or Development Co-ordination Disorder (DCD).
Children with motor dyspraxia can seem to be clumsy, and often have difficulty sensing where their body is in space and so will have difficulty with actions such as jumping, skipping and climbing. They usually also have difficulty with find motor skills such as picking up small objects, colouring in and handwriting.