Apraxia Kids & Childhood Apraxia of Speech
You may have recently seen that I did the Walk for Apraxia in Edmonton this past September. It is the largest fundraising and awareness event supporting children affected by childhood apraxia of speech across the US and Canada. In this post, I want to share a little about Apraxia Kid and their work raising awareness for childhood apraxia of speech.
What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Childhood Apraxia of Speech, also known as CAS, is a neurological speech disorder in which the accuracy and precision of speech-motor movements are impaired.
CAS may occur as a result of a known neurological impairment, such as a brain injury or stroke, as a result of a genetic condition, or may be idiopathic (unknown) in origin.
The core impairment of CAS is in learning and carrying out the necessary planning and programming for speech-motor movements that are required for accurate speech production.
You can learn more about Childhood Apraxia of Speech over on this page on my website.
What is Apraxia Kids?
“Apraxia Kids supports parents and professionals in understanding and raising awareness for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Upon hearing the diagnosis for the first time, the amount of information can be overwhelming.”
Source: https://www.apraxia-kids.org/
What does Apraxia Kids do?
They were founded in 2000 and the company was established by 3 moms working to improve the lives of their own children struggling with CAS.
Their mission is to support systems in the lives of children with apraxia of speech and their website is home to a variety of resources for parents.
My Experience with Apraxia Kids
I completed extensive training as it relates to the treatment and assessment of children with motor speech disorders. I graduated from the Apraxia Kids Bootcamp Training in 2021 and as a result, I am now recognized by Apraxia Kids for Advanced Training and Expertise in Childhood Apraxia of Speech.
My Involvement with Apraxia Kids
Apraxia Kids has created a wonderful network all over Canada and the US, with goals to support families, SLPs, and communities across North America.
Experience as a Presenter:
Apraxia Kids Virtual Education Series (2022) in collaboration with Lyndsay Bourdeau, R. SLP. Our topic was “Treatment Strategies for Comorbid Challenges”. We chose to focus on language development and investigating co-occurring Developmental Language Disorder and literacy outcomes in children with CAS.
I am a past presenter at Apraxia Kids National conference (2019, 2020)
In 2019, I presented on the data collected in my project for implementing Intensive Services for children with suspected CAS, using MTSS framework within a local school division titled “One Approach to School Therapy Challenges”
This presentation summarized primary and secondary outcomes from the project and included a summary of “future directions” when planning for academic supports for children with a history of speech sound disorder within schools.
In 2020 Lyndsay and I collaborated to present on-line and our presentation is still available! “Thinking About Literacy: Vocabulary and Spoken Word Knowledge”
For more information about Childhood Apraxia of Speech and “Care of the Whole Child”, check out the Oct 2022 issue of Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools. You can find the open access prologue to the forum here.
This video was created in collaboration with Apraxia Kids, talking about school-based supports for children in our schools who have a diagnosis of CAS (2019).