Apraxia of Speech By: Brittany Knue and Mary Dawkins

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Diagnosis Due to Childhood Apraxia of Speech being a communication disorder, the most qualified professional needs to provide assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis. This diagnosis needs to be done by a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP) A complete inventory of the sounds, syllable shapes, and words a child can make or attempts to make will be noted, and analyzed.  Errors will be compared with what is known about normal speech development to determine if the child’s speech performance is normal or not Students will then be tested in their ability to repeat syllables, words, or phrases a number of times Finally, students will be asked to both use and understand words, phrases, word endings, grammar, etc. and will be once again evaluated and compared to what is typical for their age range

Accommodations for CAS students Stating and re-stating expectations and questions to student with CAS and having students repeat the question back to you  “Please open up to page 278. What page are you opening up to?” (278)  “Very good, page 278” Exercises to strengthen speech through vocal exercises  Setting up interventions with speech pathologist for general education and resource room settings To improve speech, the student must practice speech  Providing feedback through visual and tactile “touch” cues  Example:Touch point numbers 1-10 for addition and subtraction problems Restating student’s sentences using correct vocabulary and grammar  Example: Student states, “I can go the bathroom” Teacher states: “Can I go to the bathroom” Student states: “Can I go to the bathroom?” Teacher states: “Very good, yes you can go to the bathroom”

Curricular Modification Individual Conferencing  “I read, we read, you read” to understand, comprehend, and provided visual cues for student to feel comfortable and confident with the text (more exposure) Testing at ability level rather than grade level  CAS student gains exposure to 2nd grade mathematical concepts in general education classroom. However, CAS student’s main focus in resource room visits is gaining mastery in 1st grade concepts. Therefore, this student is tested on 1st grade mathematical concepts through district assessments. Resource room pull-out  CAS student receives hours of service a day in resource room. There is a high collaboration between resource room teacher and general education teacher. It is important to use consistency with a student diagnosed with CAS to minimize confusion and misconceptions Increased amount of time being read to in class and at home  CAS student has take home books from both resource room and general education class that she is expected to read every night at home. Student also has various vocabulary games that help her practice her recognition of high frequency words.

Resources (Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America) (American Speech-Language Hearing Association)