Understanding

Your Childs

Childhood
Apraxia of
Speech

Stuttering
Stuttering affects the fluency
of speech. The disorder is
characterized by disruptions
in the production of speech
sounds, also called
"disfluencies." Disfluencies
can impede communication
when too many are produced.

How to Help
Encourage your child to relax
and slow down when
speaking. Remember that
stuttering in young children
may only be a phase, so an
evaluation by an SLP is
important to pursue in order
to estimate the child's risk for
the continuation of the
stutter.
For more on Stuttering,
visit:

Speech/
Language
Disorder

Childhood apraxia of
speech (CAS) is a motor
speech disorder. The child
knows what he or she
wants to say, but his/her
brain has difficulty
coordinating the muscle
movements necessary to
say those words.

How to Help
Practicing speech at home
with your child is very
important. Families will
often be given assignments
from an SLP to help the
child progress and allow the
child to use new strategies

outside of
the
Devan Fischer
treatment
room.

UNDERSTA

Articulation
Disorder

Dysarthria
Dysarthria is a motor speech
disorder. It results from
impaired movement of the
muscles used for speech
production, including the lips,
tongue, vocal folds, and/or
diaphragm.

How to Help
An SLP will work with your
child to slow the rate of
his/her speech, improve their
breath support in order for
them to speak more loudly,
and increase their tongue
and lip movement. The SLP
will also teach you strategies
so you can implement these
exercises at home and better
communicate with your child.
For more on Dysarthria,
visit:

An articulation disorder
involves problems making
sounds. Sounds can be
substituted, left off, added or
changed. For instance, many
young children sound like
they are making a "w" sound
for an "r" sound (e.g.,
"wabbit" for "rabbit") or may
leave sounds out of words,
such as "nana" for "banana."
The child may have an
articulation disorder if these
errors continue past the
expected age.

How to Help
Articulation treatment may
involve demonstrating how to
produce certain sounds
correctly, learning to
recognize which sounds are
correct and incorrect, and
practicing sounds in different
words. Working with your
child with these at
home will increase their
progress immensely.

Selective
Mutism
A child with selective mutism
does not speak in certain
situations, like at school, but
speaks at other times, like at
home or with friends.

How to Help
Many times, a child with
Selective Mutism is
experiencing severe anxiety
or self-esteem issues.
Constant encouragement is
key in boosting your childs
confidence and making them
more and more comfortable
speaking in any setting.
For more on Selective
Mutism, visit:

http://www.asha.org/public/sp
eech/disorders/SelectiveMutis
m/