Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a speech disorder in which a child's brain has difficulty coordinating the complex oral movements needed to create sounds into syllables, syllables into words, and words into phrases. Typically, muscle weakness is not to blame for this speech disorder.Skiptocontent ChildhoodApraxiaofSpeechCauses,SymptomsandTreatmentContactUs1-800-551-5480RequestanAppointmentWhatischildhoodapraxiaofspeech?Childhoodapraxiaofspeech(CAS)isaspeechdisorderinwhichachild’sbrainhasdifficultycoordinatingthecomplexoralmovementsneededtocreatesoundsintosyllables,syllablesintowords,andwordsintophrases.Typically,muscleweaknessisnottoblameforthisspeechdisorder.Parentsofchildrenwithchildhoodapraxiaofspeechcommonlysaythingslike,"Noonecanunderstandmyson,""Itlookslikeheistryingtosaytheword,butcan'tgetitout,"and"Hesaidthatwordonetime,andthenIneverhearditagain."Themostcommondescriptionofachildwithchildhoodapraxiaofspeechisthatheisoftenverydifficulttounderstand.CausesChildhoodapraxiaofspeechisamotorspeechdisorder.Thereissomethinginthechild'sbrainthatdoesnotallowmessagestogettothemouthmusclestoproducespeechcorrectly.Inmostcases,thecauseisunknown.CASisnotadisorderthatcanbe“outgrown,”ratherchildrenwithCASwillnotmakeprogresswithouttreatment. Thereislittledataavailableabouthowmanychildrenhavechildhoodapraxiaofspeech.Thenumberofchildrendiagnosedwiththedisorderappearstobeontherise,butitishardtomeasurehowtheincidencehaschangedovertime.Somefactorsinfluencingtheriseindiagnosisinclude:IncreasedawarenessofchildhoodapraxiaofspeechbyprofessionalsandfamiliesIncreasedavailabilityofresearchonCASEarlier-ageevaluationandidentificationSignsandsymptomsAccordingtotheAmericanSpeech-Language-HearingAssociation(ASHA,2007),thethreemostcommonfeaturesinchildrenwithapraxiaofspeechare:Inconsistenterrorsonconsonantsandvowelsinrepeatedproductionsofsyllablesorwords(forexample,achildsaysthesameworddifferentlyeachtimehetriestoproduceit).Difficultyproducinglonger,morecomplexwordsandphrases.Inappropriatei