When I got my first referral for a student with Apraxia of Speech, I cried. I had no idea how to help them. Blame it on the lack of training during Grad School or maybe it was imposter syndrome - either way - I did not feel confident or competent in treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech.
I know that I’m not alone. I get dozens of DMs a week from preschool SLPs and school aged SLPs asking for tips and tricks for treating Apraxia of Speech.
Over the last seven years, I have read every book, watched every video, and taken every Professional Development Course on Apraxia of Speech I could find. I have compiled my favorite resources and references for the assessment and treatment of Apraxia of Speech for you, so that you don’t have to make all the mistakes I did and spend as much time as I did doing all the research
Assessment Resources for Apraxia of Speech
Assessment for CAS is complex and requires a variety of components. Use can any (or all) of these resources in your assessment!
DEMMS: Dynamic Evaluation of Motor Speech Skill (DEMSS) Manual. This test was “Developed by one of the leading experts on childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and an expert on test development, this tool is an efficient way to assess children who have significant speech impairment, especially reduced phonemic and/or phonetic inventories, vowel or prosodic errors, poor speech intelligibility, and/or little to no verbal communication.”
TOCS+: “TOCS+ includes software to record, save, playback, judge and analyze speech recordings to measure children's speech intelligibility at the word and sentence level.”
Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme - 3rd Edition: This Programme “is a flexible, comprehensive assessment and therapy resource for the management of severe speech disorders.”
Informal Childhood Apraxia of Speech Assessment by Jennie Bjorem: This informal assessment includes definitions of features, cueing resource, assessment checklist, case history, red flag checklist, sound inventory form, core word and power word list and an informal motor Speech Assessment, and a CAS Decision Guide. This is an immediate paid download.
Graham Oral-Facial Exam: A comprehensive Oral-Facial Exam that includes directions and a helpful clinical decision guide.
Buy Bobby a Puppy Task: This simple task can be a valuable part of your assessment. Research shows that the Token-to-token inconsistency of monosyllabic words and the phrase "buy Bobby a puppy" was sensitive and specific in differentiating children with CAS and speech delay. The research article and materials needed to complete the task are linked.
4 Evidence Based Treatment Approaches for Childhood Apraxia of Speech:
While there are other approaches for CAS, none of them have as much evidence supporting them as these four.