A PRAXIA OF S PEECH

Published by: Alyssa Petsche

February 15, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 1

What is Apraxia of Speech?

Apraxia of Speech can be described as a speech impairment that causes difficulty speaking due to damage to the parts of the brain involved with speaking and language. Essentially, a person with this impairment knows what they want to say in their mind, but their brain has trouble connecting those thoughts to the corresponding muscles o the mouth to form words. This speech disorder can occur in both children and adults, and currently there is no known cause as to why Apraxia of speech may occur, aside from cases in which direct head trauma is involved.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

What is Apraxia of Speech? Researching Reliable Sources References 1 1-2 3

Communication Disorders (NIDCD). The ASHA website provided several links to different sections on the website for information about the symptoms of Apraxia, diagnosis, available treatments, and even a link as to other organizations with information available. The website showed an updated copyright rom19972013 at the bottom of the page, and also provided tabs at the contact page about the organization and with contact information available. The NIDCD website was set up very similarly to the ASHA site, with links taking you to different sections of the page based on which information you wanted. Though both sites offer very similar information, the NIDCD site offered more information in areas such as symptoms and diagnosis. This website gives a full mailing address and e-mail or more information, and was last updated in 2010. Another of the websites I found was published through Cincinnati Childrens Hospital medical Center, and provided more basic information than the previous websites, as if geared more towards people with no prior knowledge of Apraxia of Speech. The information is provided in different tabs by category, and the information is listed in a bullet-point format under each successive tab.

Researching Reliable Sources

In my initial search for information on Apraxia of Speech I used google.com as a search tool and searched phrases such as Apraxia, Apraxia of speech and Childhood Apraxia of Speech. From the websites that were found, I tried to focus on websites with a .gov or .org in the url because most of the .com websites were either personal blogs or articles. From the five websites that appeared to be more legitimate than others I then used the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) to further asses the quality and reliability of the information on the websites. The two websites that I felt had the most reliable information were published through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the National Institute on Deafness and Other

Researching Reliable Resources (Continued)

This website seems to be a lot more simplified for those who just want to know the basics about Apraxia of Speech. The fourth website I discovered was through the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association, and their website is geared more toward providing information for families with children who have Apraxia of Speech with their information listed under a Family Start Guide. It spells out for parents how their children should be developing and how Apraxia of Speech affects such development. On the right side of the page are several questions parents might want to ask that link to more responses. The websites copyright shows that it was last updated in 2012 and it provides a street address as well as contact information to be able to ask or more information. While this website is very informational, it would be better suited for a family affected by Apraxia of speech rather than a student researching for a report or a project. The final website I used is actually a link to a pdf file of an article published through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, written by Penelope K. Hall and titled A Letter to the Parent(s) of a Child with Developmental Apraxia of Speech (DAS). This particular article is part IV of a series and focuses on therapy for DAS. This is the only reliable resource I was able to find that did their own research and experiments on effective and ineffective methods for treatment. They discuss linguistic and motor-programming approaches which speech pathologists have used and have proved to be effective in helping to improve speech quality. Although this article was published in 2000, many of the methods the author describes are still relevant in improving a childs capability of speech. I found all five websites to be reliable in researching Apraxia of Speech. Although the websites presented a lot of information, it was obvious that some websites were geared more to the attention of perhaps a medical student or a student researcher, while others focused on guiding families through the process of DAS. Each website provided relatively current, accurate information
Photo courtesy of http://www.apraxia-kids.org

The goal of the American SpeechLanguage-Hearing Association: Making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all.

Courtesy of: http://www.apraxia-kids.org

Apraxia of Speech

Page 3

References
Hall, P.K. (2000) A letter to the parents of a child with developmental apraxia of speech.

Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, (31), 179-181. Retrieved from
http://www.speechplus.org/articles/apraxia_article_4.pdf

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2013). Apraxia of speech in adults. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/ApraxiaAdults.htm#signs

The Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association. (2012). What is childhood apraxia of speech? Retrieved from http://www.apraxiakids.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=chKMI0PIIsE&b=839037&c t=837215

Cincinnatti Childrens Hospital Medical Center. (2013). Childhood Apraxia of speech. Retrieved from http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/v/verbal-apraxia/

National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders. (2010). Apraxia of

Speech. Retrieved from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/apraxia.aspx