Apraxia and Dysarthria Archives - Page 7 of 9

Category: Apraxia and Dysarthria

Definition of Apraxia

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Does apraxia affect classroom learning? Strictly speaking, “apraxia” is a motor speech disorder. Therefore, it only effects the production of speech. But many of these children also have other problems- in comprehension, vocabulary, question comprehension, etc. To me, that means that the child has apraxia AND something else. The apraxia should only effect the expression of speech. That is a “purest” view. And you will read and hear of other views. This is my favorite definition of apraxia. Apraxia…

Lateral Lisp and Dysarthria

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client had a stroke when he was a baby, and he has both slurred speech and a lateral lisp. Do you think he can learn to develop a central groove for the sibilants? Only time will tell. In the meantime, focus your therapy less on individual phonemes and more on improving intelligibility by helping him learn to speak up, speak out, and over-exaggerate. Exaggeration is the method recommended most often for clients with dysarthria.

Diet Modifications and Apraxia

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have a three-year-old client with apraxia. The mother recently has put the child on a fish oil regiment. I was wondering what your take was on this and if you have had experience with diet modifications. In 33 years as an SLP, I have seen many diet fads come and go – fish oil, whip cream, no potatoes and tomatoes, excess protein, limited protein, vegetarianism, veganism, increased electrolytes, no sugar, no food dyes or additives of any kind,…

Fear in Labeling Motor Speech Disorders

By Pam Marshalla

Q: This seems perhaps silly, but I have to admit that I am afraid of labeling a client with apraxia or dysarthria. Perhaps it is because I took no formal class on motor speech disorders while I was in college, and I have had to piece information together myself. Can you advise me? I too was afraid of motor speech for years. In fact people asked me to speak about it for some 20 years before I felt brave enough…

What is PROMPT?

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Can you explain the PROMPT method you mention in your class on apraxia and dysarthria? PROMPT is short for the system called “Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets” developed by Deborah Hayden. It is a tactile cueing technique for phoneme production. The trainer uses hands-on tactile cues – she touches on and around the client’s mouth – to shape the mouth for speech sound production. On their website, the PROMPT method is described as: “the systematic manipulation of…

PROMPT and Apraxia

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What is your opinion of PROMPT? I have a parent that believes that this is the only method to use with her apraxic child. I have tried to explain there are other methods to try. I am not PROMPT trained because of the time and expense. I also have not been formally trained in PROMPT, but I have seen it in action. It is a very good approach, perhaps one of the best for apraxia. But it is not…

Overlapping Stages of Vocal Development

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Your book, Apraxia Uncovered, describes seven stages of vocal development. If my son can only do 80% of Stage One, should I proceed with Stage Two? Or do I wait for him to be able to do 100% of Stage One before moving on to Stage Two, even though he is able to do some of the items already in Stage Two? The stages overlap. Many children learn a little bit of this and that from each stage without…

Esteem vs. Rappprt

By Pam Marshalla

What is the first most important goal of speech-language therapy? This question came up at a workshop recently. One seminar member answered, “Build the child’s self esteem.” This is not correct. The first most important goal of therapy is to establish rapport with the client. All the old-time speech-language textbooks taught this. Establish a trusting relationship between yourself and the child early in therapy, and continue to build this relationship as therapy progresses. If the child doesn’t trust or like…

Frequency of Therapy with Childhood Apraxia and Dysarthria

By Pam Marshalla

Q: How often should a young child (2-4 years of age) with apraxia or dysarthria receive speech-language therapy services? I have a baseline that all my clients with motor speech disorders have to meet. They must attend once per week for one hour at a minimum. Twice per week is very nice. Three times per week is a complete luxury. More than that is unnecessary because these children do not change very fast. Children with motor speech disorders take a…

CAS and Self-Esteem

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Is it wise to talk to a preschool child with childhood apraxia about their disorder? I never tell little kids that they have a disorder. I let them know that they are speaking very well, that they are still learning, and that I am thrilled that they are speaking as well as they are. Often I imitate back to the child what he said and how he said it, then I model for him how to say it better….