Hello, I know that 19 months old is way too early to diagnosis CAS. If you have an older child that was eventually diagnosed with CAS, did their speech look like this:

My son is 19 months old and his expressive speech is throwing me for such a loop and I am incredibly worried. He has said many words about 40+ words and has even combined words on certain occasions. However, he only has about 12 to 13 (i.e ball, bear, open, all done, there, up, down, bye, pop) that I hear often (basically lost track of how many times I have heard these words). The rest of his words are pop words that I have heard maybe 2 to 6x. We have days that it seems his speech might be taking off but then we don’t quite move forward. Today he has only said (all done, bye, there, bear and maybe more). He also will sometimes stop randomly using a word for a few days. Open is one of his most used words but I have not been able to get him to produce the word all week. He babbles and does jargon. He likes to look in the mirror and says “‘mamamamamamaaa”

Many times he will fill with “bah” for example I was playing ready, set, “go” and trying to get him to fill in “go” but he usually just says “bah”. The other day he said “go” but I only got him to say it twice before he just went back to bah.

Sometimes it feels like he just doesn’t want to talk and other times it feels like he can’t get his words out. He struggles the most when he is being prompted.

I always try to pause and wait and make sure not to say “say this” or “what is this?”

His receptive language is great, social connection, eye contact all well. I have no concerns in that area.

We have EI coming for an evaluation this week but wanted so see if anyone has any insights they can share with me.

Hello, I have some questions if you guys don’t mind helping me. I took my 2.5 year old son to see a SLP and they said they’re not diagnosing him with having CAS just yet but they’re treating it as if he has it. They said they’re going to see how he is at 3 years old with his speech before diagnosing him. He sees a speech therapist once a week for an hour. Should I try to get him to see the therapist more than once a week? Also, any books I can buy on Amazon that we can work on at home ? Thanks in advance!

I thought I would share my story in hopes of making parents feel a little less worried about their child’s future

I was born with childhood apraxia of speech and was officially diagnosed when I was around two years old.
Throughout my life, I always knew I was different and that I talked differently from other kids. I attended private speech therapy and also received speech therapy through school. I continued speech therapy until 8th grade.
I also have learning disabilities, which made school a lot harder for me. During one of my IEP meetings in middle school, my parents were told that I would never go to college.
Well, I’ve always loved proving people wrong!
I’m now 26 years old and graduated from college a couple of years ago. I’m currently working as a substitute teacher, and I’m hoping to have my own classroom next year!
Something I always remind myself is that being different is cool, and who wants to be like everyone else anyway?
I will say that I wouldn’t be where I am today without my amazing parents. They made sure I received early intervention and had all the support I needed throughout my education. I’m forever grateful to them for advocating for me and believing in me.
I hope sharing my story helps even just a few parents feel a little less worried about their child’s future. Every child’s journey is different, and a prediction about what a child will or won’t accomplish doesn’t have to define their future.
I also forgot to mention that my GPA was a 3.7 in high school and a 3.6 in college! I graduated college cum laude. :)

My son has a pretty severe case of Childhood Apraxia of Speech, he’s four in a half and can say some small words but the majority is slurred and hard to decipher. Speech pathologists say he’ll be more verbal in a couple of years, and while my father was never diagnosed he couldn’t speak until he was seven so I’m assuming he also had CAS and that my son might be more verbal around that age as well.

All I ever really get told is that my son has motor planning difficulties and he’ll be able to speak, but I also know this is a lifelong issue and reading comments on this sub how it effects people well into adulthood. What are some things I should prepare for for him? People who are older here with CAS, did you also have learning difficulties and what helped you in the future? Any advice/stories of what you’ve been through is appreciated!

hi I am 15 years old and I got diagnose late and I g better I really did but I am still working after years and school is hard and there is no books for me any so do it get better

I am worried that my daughter's CAS is uncommonly severe because, in addition to the inability to say words or sounds, she even finds hand gestures / signs incredibly difficult. I understand they are related because they are both motor planning processes. But I feel like a lot of the success stories I hear about kids who start speaking or have breakthroughs at 4 or 5 or even 7 to 8, didn't have as hard a time with signing. No matter what I'm prompting her for (milk, water, food, book, music) she does the sign for potty first, like that's her default because it's easy a closed fist shaking, then if I say, "that's potty, milk is open and shut and open and shut, remember?" She can do it but it seems to take a great deal of concentration for her to get her hand to open and shut, and she always gets both hands involved, she can't isolate one hand or the other.

Did anyone else have a similar experience with their toddlers, and can I still be hopeful about her speech eventually coming if signs are such a struggle? Many thanks! And hugs to all going through this struggle.

Looking for experiences from parents of children with suspected/diagnosed childhood apraxia of speech ❤️
My little boy is 2 years 4 months and non-verbal.

What worries me particularly is that he also has very little babbling and never really went through the typical “bababa/dadada/mamama” stage.

His understanding is good and he communicates really well in other ways — pointing, signing, gestures, good eye contact and joint attention. He’s social and engaged, but actually producing speech sounds seems incredibly difficult for him.
Was anyone else’s child with CAS like this at 2–2.5 years — very few sounds as well as no words? Did they eventually develop speech, and if so, when did you start seeing progress?

Every so often he says ‘mama’. Once every few weeks but never in a way to instigate conversation. It’s very much self motivated , he does when he wants and to , for himself .

He’s been having speech therapy since age 2, (apraxia specific) but still no improvement

I’d especially love to hear positive stories from children who started from a similar place ❤️

My 4.5yr old son has been in speech therapy for 2.5 years now. We did help me grow until he was 3. Now he goes to the local public preschool on an IEP, does speech therapy once a week there and also does outpatient speech therapy once a week. A year ago when he started at the preschool, he had maybe 5 words. Now, he has 100s. However, he will only talk in the comfort of his immediate family members(mom, dad, 2 brothers) and he is very difficult to understand most of the time. It’s obvious there is something going on with his speech and we’ve been leaning towards apraxia. Now, his outpatient therapist is pretty convinced he has selective mutism. I agree with her that the signs fit.

Does anyone have experience with their child or themselves having both apraxia and selective mutism?

Hi all,

I'm a 24-year-old med student in the Philadelphia area, and I grew up with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). I've come a long way with it, but I never really had anyone to talk to who'd been through the same thing. Growing up, it was mostly speech therapists, teachers, and family who were supportive but didn't really get it.

Now that I'm in a new city and starting a new chapter, I'd love to meet others with CAS, whether you're still working through it or it's mostly in the past. I'm hoping to swap experiences: what it was like growing up, how it shows up now (or doesn't), dealing with school and work, that kind of thing.

I'm open to grabbing coffee, a casual meetup, or just messaging if that's more comfortable. Parents of kids with CAS are welcome to reach out too, but I'm mainly hoping to find other adults who've lived it.

Feel free to comment or DM me. Thanks for reading!

Hi all,
I have a 3 year old who was recently diagnosed with apraxia, suspected since 2. He is in part-time preschool and last year he enjoyed going but this year he is struggling with me leaving him there, not crying but not wanting me to leave. From talking to some other moms it sounds like this is typical for 3 year olds because they are more aware and have more separation anxiety. Of course I can’t help think that having apraxia plays a role in this because he is unable to communicate with his teachers and peers as he would like to.

Did any of you experience this. As far as we know he is neurotypical but I suspect ADHD and he is in OT for some sensory seeking behaviors. He had an unusually hard time at school yesterday where he didn’t want to participate in the activities and was crying when I picked him up which is just breaking my heart and I want to help him have a better time at school. The teacher mentioned he maybe getting sick but he was happy as can be at home so I don’t think it’s that. We are working on having him use an AAC device but he doesn’t want to use it.

I have a 5 year old son who was diagnosed with apraxia of speech two years ago. Quick background: he took quite a well to string words together and have a large vocabulary; initial speech therapy treatment worked primarily with articulation and took a conservative approach to diagnosis. He has been regularly attending private speech twice weekly for almost three years. He is currently in kindergarten (though on the extremely young side, as he just turned 5). I am just curious about issues with kiddos like my son struggling to learn and identify letters. He is having a hard time with letter naming, letter identification, and writing letters. They aren't his only issues, but it does seem like they are at the forefront. I see his speech affecting his ability to communicate in a natural way with his peers, and teacher reports indicate he is shy, anxious and hesitant to self-start. His IEP is coming up and it's always useful to hear stories or other experiences. I feel like public schools don't have a ton of expertise with apraxia and might be a bit dismissive, particularly as his articulation is improving regularly.

My daughter seems to fill in a random word when she can’t think of the correct word to say. Im wondering if this seems somewhat normal? She tells me how frustrating it is when she just can’t say words correctly and it breaks my heart for her. But the saying random words or complete loss of knowing which words she wants to say seems somewhat new. She has a genetic deletion so I worry about regression. She is 9 years old. Tonight she said “can I have more toaster” when she meant more bacon. Then there’s always times when she calls waffles pancakes constantly.I think I’m going to message the doctor to make sure she doesn’t need to be checked on. She currently doesn’t have an SLP outside of school at the moment. But she does have an IEP meeting coming up I plan on bringing this up.

10 year old with CAS... I need all the advice on helping with reading. It feels like we have been doing the same thing for years. What actually works??

Was just given a heads up at a state eval my daughter may have CAS.

I've been looking into how to get her the help she may need. Have some strong leads which I am grateful for.

More wondering, how long and intense these things are. And how early it is possible to actually diagnose this. And honestly I'm just abit overwhelmed with it all. I just want her to be able to say the things she wants to say & she can't.

My daughter is 10 and was diagnosed with apraxia when she was 5/6 years old, she had been in speech therapy since she was about 18 months old. She goes to private speech therapy for 1 hr/week and gets in school speech therapy for only 30 mins 6 times/month. She recently started 5th grade, which is intermediate school in our school district and so a new school. Last week while we were talking about school, she told me her speech therapy at school is now on the computer, so virtual. I am not okay with this. I feel like she will not benefit as much from virtual and if we are pulling her out of class several times a week, it should be as beneficial as possible. I expressed my concern to the school counselor who was very understanding and agreed, she reached out to the speech therapist to call me. When the speech therapist called me, she was very dismissive and stated that research shows it is just as beneficial. Which, whatever, but I don’t feel it is as beneficial for my daughter and her situation. Anyways she said she couldn’t change it and it would have to go through the supervisor, I’m waiting for her to call me. My daughter does have an IEP, but I am trying to handle it before calling a meeting. Anyways, am I overreacting?

Hey everyone,

I have Childhood Apraxia. I’m a Senior enrolled in a Special Program at College in Wisconsin, and I’m about Two weeks into the School Year. My Roommate and I unfortunately didn’t work out well as roommates. Also I want to make this Clear: There’s nothing wrong between him and I, and remains on Good Terms.

He was a light sleeper and I’ve been told I make Noises (Mumbling, Groaning, and Snoring). I also know that I shift around and Rub my head (Doctors said that it is nothing to worry about) in my sleep. Because of this, we weren’t a good fit for the same room.

We are still technically roommates but are no longer in the same room. I’m living in a Pod-style building there’s 5 rooms in total. He took a room in the pod. He emailed the Hall Director first, then our RA and Us talked about the situation.

Knowing me that I’m a Very, very Social Person. I would like someone to share the space with me instead of a Single-Double. I don’t want my final year of college to be alone.

I would especially appreciate hearing from other people who have Apraxia and have similar experiences with college roommates.

What should I do? Should I bring this up to my Program Director and ask for advice? I would really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

Thanks.

I have a relative who is losing his voice and am wondering if there's any way I can help. Am I in the right place?

Aphasia, speech speech speech

My 4 year old daughter was diagnosed with autism. Level 1 in the area of RRB and level 2 in the area of social communication. She is a GLP. How long did it take your child to become fully conversational and what made the biggest difference?

We have been in speech therapy for a few months and she is going to prek this week with an IEP and will receive speech therapy there as well

Hello everyone. I've had a speech impediment my whole life. I did speech therapy as a kid and it was focused on phonetics. It never helped and I had to learn ways to navigate having trouble connecting what I wanted to say to getting my tongue, jaw, and throat to actually say it. To this day my tongue, mouth, jaw, etc lock up etc.

I've recently learned about Apraxia and every single symptom is me 100%. I was wondering is there anyone here who wasn't diagnosed or found the correct speech therapy until adulthood? And if so what helped and what was the process like? This has hindered me my whole life and has been a constant stress and frustrating because while I know what I want to say I have to find other ways to say things every single day.

Any mums out there with children with apraxia or speech delays?

Would love to connect and share experiences/what's helped

Our little boy turned 18 months 2 days ago and has almost no words. He started saying ball yesterday. Wa for water and sometimes mom and dada. I am just so worried. I hope he is just a late talker. His brother was more advanced with words and consonants at this age. Our boy says D, B, G and M but I don’t think any more. He’s a HUGE pointer and grunter. He is so social. I would say he’s a better communicator than my other son was even though language is way behind. He is smiley and laughs and he can follow instructions. He’ll point to his belly button and nose. Bring me books if I ask for them. Any advice?

We have told our pediatrician and have an appointment scheduled this week. She referred us to speech therapy already since I asked. We also scheduled a 2 hour evaluation with early intervention for next week. Also a dentist appointment for next week.