What is Apraxia of Speech?

By Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch HERWriter

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The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke estimates that 1 million people in the United States suffer from a language disorder called aphasia. With this disorder, patients have sustained damage to areas of the brain that are involved in language, such as Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Some aphasia patients may have a co-morbid speech disorder, such as apraxia of speech.

Apraxia of speech, unlike aphasia, affects a patient's speech abilities, not her language abilities. The patient has trouble with the voluntary movement patterns needed to produce speech, though she does not have either weakness or paralysis of the muscles involved in speech. If a patient has acquired apraxia of speech, she has damage to the areas of the brain that are used in speech. Possible causes include a stroke, brain tumor, head injury, dementia and neurodegenerative illnesses. However, some apraxia of speech patients have had the disorder since birth. This type of apraxia of speech is called developmental apraxia of speech; other names include childhood apraxia of speech, developmental verbal apraxia and articulatory apraxia. The cause of developmental apraxia of speech is not known, though the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders pointed out that patients may have a family history of either communication disorders or learning disabilities.

Patients with apraxia of speech can have several different speech issues. For example, patients may have problems speaking longer or complex words. MedlinePlus noted that short phrases that a patient uses daily, such as “How are you?” can be said without much issue. Patients can have trouble putting together sounds to say a word correctly. It may take a patient several attempts to say a word before saying it correctly. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders added that a common characteristic in this speech disorder is incorrectly using prosody, which is the stress, rhythm and intonation used when speaking.

MedlinePlus stated that patients with apraxia of speech may undergo several tests to determine the cause of the disorder. For example, a brain scan, such as an MRI or CT, may show if the apraxia of speech resulted from a brain injury or tumor. To discover if the cause is an infection of the brain, the doctor would do a spinal tap, in which she takes a sample of the patient's cerebrospinal fluid. Other tests include an electroencephalogram, or EEG, which measures electrical activity in the brain; this test would detect if epilepsy is the cause. A speech-language pathologist is also highly involved in the diagnosis of apraxia of speech.

References

A.D.A.M. Apraxia. MedlinePlus, 2010. Web. 11 May 2011
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007472.htm

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Aphasia Information Page. National Institutes of Health, 2010. Web. 11 May 2011
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/aphasia/aphasia.htm

Stroke Connection Magazine. Aphasia vs. Apraxia. American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, 2010. Web. 11 May 2011
http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/LifeAfterStroke/RegainingIndependence/CommunicationChallenges/Aphasia-vs-Apraxia_UCM_310079_Article.jsp

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Apraxia of Speech. National Institutes of Health, 2002. Web. 11 May 2011
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/apraxia.htm

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Aphasia. National Institutes of Health, 2008. Web. 11 May 2011
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/aphasia.html

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.