Apraxia… say what?

Apraxia is a motor speech disorder that makes it hard to speak. This disorder can make saying the right sounds and words very difficult. Speech-language pathologists can help.

If you have apraxia of speech, you will have problems saying sounds correctly. This may cause you to say something very different than what you meant. You may even make up words. For example, you may say "chicken" instead of "kitchen." Or, you may say something that might not make sense, like "bipem," even though you wanted to say “kitchen.” You may know that what you say is wrong and try to fix it. Sometimes you will get it right, but sometimes you will still say something else. This can be very frustrating.

If you have apraxia, you may experience these symptoms:

• Have trouble imitating and saying sounds on your own. You may add new sounds, leave sounds out, or say sounds the wrong way.

• Be able to say something the right way one time but the wrong way the next time.

• Move your tongue and lips to get them into the right place as you try to say sounds. This is called groping.

• Speak more slowly.

• Be able to say things that you say all the time—like "Hello" or "How are you?"—without much trouble. This is called automatic speech.

• Not be able to say any sounds at all. This may happen in severe cases.

Speech-language pathologists can work with you to improve how you say sounds and put sounds into words. Treatment will focus on getting your muscles to move correctly. You may need to teach your muscles to make sounds again. Saying sounds over and over and using the correct mouth movements can help. You may need to slow down your speech or talk to a steady beat so that you can say the sounds you need to say. In bad cases, you may need to find other ways to answer questions or tell people what you want. These may include simple hand gestures, writing, pointing to letters or pictures, or using a computer. This is called augmentative alternative communication. More on this next week!

It is important to get help if you have apraxia of speech. Talk to your doctor about seeing a speech-language pathologist, or look for a speech-language pathologist in your area.