GUELPH – The month of May is national apraxia awareness month, offering an opportunity to bring awareness to childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).
Affecting one in 1,000 children, CAS is a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult for children to speak. Children are born with CAS, making it difficult or impossible for them to plan the movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, etc. needed for speech.
Children with CAS predominately have a quality understanding of language – they know what they want to say – but have difficulty learning or performing the complex movements that underlie speech. Apraxia of speech is one of the most severe childhood speech and communication disorders.
May 14 is CAS awareness day, the City of Guelph and Apraxia Kids will be celebrating with proclamations and the lighting of landmarks blue, including Guelph’s Market Square and City Hall.
“We want to bring increased awareness to our community about this speech problem in children,” said Guelph speech and language pathologist Brooke Rea.
“Childhood apraxia of speech is still unfamiliar, misunderstood, and continues to have a significant impact on children and their families.
“Speech and communication are critical skills for young children to develop. We need to support children with apraxia of speech and their families.
“The only proven treatment for CAS is speech therapy, and is quite costly as it extends over many years for these children.”
For more information visit apraxia-kids.org.
