Speechfundamentals Pllc

How is childhood apraxia of speech diagnosed? An audiologist should perform a hearing evaluation to rule out hearing loss as a possible cause of the child's speech difficulties. A certified-SLP with knowledge and experience with CAS conducts an evaluation. This will assess the child's oral-motor abilities, melody of speech, and speech sound development. The SLP can diagnose CAS and rule out other speech disorders, unless only a limited speech sample can be obtained making a firm diagnosis challenging. An oral-motor assessment involves: checking for signs of weakness or low muscle tone in the lips, jaw, and tongue, calleddysarthria. Children with CAS do not usually have weakness, but checking for weakness will help the SLP make a diagnosis. seeing how well the child can coordinate the movement of the mouth by having him or her imitate nonspeech actions (e.g, moving the tongue from side to side, smiling, frowning, puckering the lips) evaluating the coordination and sequencing of muscle