Developmental Apraxia of Speech

A motor speech disorder in which children have difficulty planning and coordinating the movements needed for speech, despite having no muscle weakness. Children with developmental apraxia of speech know what they want to say but their brains have difficulty coordinating the muscle movements required to produce the sounds, syllables, and words. This results in inconsistent speech errors, difficulty with longer or more complex words, and unusual prosodic patterns. The condition affects speech development from infancy, often delaying or limiting canonical babbling, and may require intensive speech therapy and augmentative communication support. Children with apraxia of speech are important candidates for early intervention technologies that reinforce vocalization and babbling as precursors to speech development.