Apraxia of Speech

Apraxia of speech (AOS) involves the loss of previously acquired speech levels. It occurs in both children and adults who have (prior to the onset of apraxia) acquired some level of speaking ability. AOS affects an individual’s volitional speech and is typically the result of a stroke, tumor, or other known neurological illness or injury. Apraxia may be accompanied by a language disorder called aphasia.

Symptoms of AOS include inconsistent articulatory errors, groping oral movements to locate the correct articulatory position, and increasing errors with increasing word and phrase length. Patients with apraxia find that vowels are easier to produce than consonants. Single consonants are easier than blends. As in stuttering, final consonants are easier than those in the initial position. This may occur because initial consonants are affected by anticipatory errors. Also, perhaps once an apraxic gets speech started with the production of a vowel, production continues in a more automatic fashion. Fricative and affricates are the most difficult phonemes for apraxics to produce. AOS often co-occurs with Oral Apraxia (during both speech and non-speech movements) and Limb Apraxia.

Developmental verbal dyspraxia presents in children who have no evidence of difficulty with strength or range of motion of the articulators, but are unable to execute speech movements because of motor planning and coordination problems.

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