Treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech through Telepractice

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a developmental disorder that is typically diagnosed by 2 years of age. Children with apraxia present with inconsistent speech sound errors on consonants and vowels and in repeated productions of syllables and words. Usually, these children also have difficulty imitating their parents when asked to repeat words back when attempting to learn new words and vocabulary.

Tele-therapy can be an effective way to treat apraxia in toddlers and preschool age children. The treatment requires the child to watch facial and mouth movements from the clinician which can easily be done via zoom, where the child is able to see both their face and the clinicians face next to them.

Advancements in online materials for Speech Language Pathologists also provide a large inventory of fun, interactive targets to work on virtually. With apraxia, specific consonant-vowel (CV) word structures are targeted to learn new ‘motor plans’ including CVC, CVCV, VC, VCV words. These materials allow the clinician and child to interact virtually while targeting different motor plans in a fun way!

Small Talk SLP has a variety of interactive games and songs for sale on Boom Cards and Teachers Pay Teachers for SLP’s to use for a small cost.

 

Above you can see the target words that can be addressed in the book, as well as other targets prompted by the clinician.

The clinician will move the manipulatives (trash can, car or box) to find Daddy!

Working with children with apraxia has proven to be effective through tele-therapy with Pediaspeech’s specialty trained clinicians!