Childhood Apraxia of Speech Essay Example

Attention-getter – Who here tonight has known someone who has or has had a speech disorder? (Pause) Everyone can raise his or her hand, since you know me.

Thesis Statement – Apraxia is a rare disorder that if left untreated can persist into adulthood, causing a child to suffer years of frustration from being unable to communicate effectively.

Credibility – I have read numerous articles and support websites about apraxia and I have also personally gone through four years of speech therapy for this disorder.

Preview of points – Tonight I am doing to discuss childhood apraxia, what the speech disorder is, what causes it, how it is diagnosed, and how it is treated.

Transition: To understand what causes Apraxia, we must first understand what the disorder is.  Body: I. What is Apraxia?

• For every 10,000 children 1 in 10 are affected by apraxia. (Shriberg, Aram, & Kwiatkowski, 1997
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• Controversy around its definition, cause, treatment and diagnosis.
• Disorder attributed to deficits of the nervous system that impact the ability to sequence and say sounds, syllables, and words.
• A child knows what they want to say, but the brain can’t tell the right body parts the correct way to move in order to say it properly.
• Called by various names (slide showing various names) (Internal Transition: Just as there are varying medical definitions of apraxia, the topic of how it is caused has multiple theories.

How is Apraxia diagnosed?

• Speech pathologists evaluate children for speech disorders and over half are employed in K-12 school systems (slide showing statistics).
• First a hearing test is done to evaluate if hearing loss is a possible cause.
• A certified speech pathologist evaluates coordination of their