Apraxia of speech in children, or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), is a motor speech disorder. The child has difficulty saying sounds, syllables, and words in this speech disorder. They know exactly what they want to say but have difficulty coordinating the muscle movements required to say those words. Nevertheless, Apraxia of speech in children is usually treatable with appropriate techniques.
Can apps be an effective Apraxia tool?
Yes! And there are many apps available that address apraxia of speech in children. These are available on the App store. Here is a summary of a few of our favorite apps to help with Apraxia.
Apraxia Farm
Apraxia Farm is a one-of-a-kind application specifically created to help children with childhood apraxia of speech and severe speech-sound disorders. It includes multiple levels, i.e., both vowel and consonant targets. Certified speech-language pathologists design it for children who have difficulty with speech sound production. This app can also be helpful for SLPs, special educators, and parents.
Apraxia Farm provides:
- A video modeling of the consonants and vowels, word targets by syllable structure (CV, VC, CVC & CVCV).
- Features for data collection to help in monitoring the progress.
- Customization options to add words, images, and recordings.
- An excellent tool for conducting a group session.
Apraxia RainbowBee
The Apraxia RainbowBee is a multi-step, multi-modality program. It has colorful graphics, video targets, and fun-filled, engaging games. This app is mainly designed to help improve motor planning for children with Apraxia.
The app includes flashcards and two exciting games:
- A puzzle game that is played as a reward along with flashcards
- A fun-filled animated board game
The Apraxia RainbowBee app uses the principles of motor planning. You can start with the CV and VC syllable level, then move to the CVC, two-syllable, and three-syllable words, and then move to the sentence level.
What Apraxia RainbowBee offers for Speech Therapists:
- It allows them to choose between three different levels of complexity.
- It allows them to manipulate the prompting of visual, auditory, tactile, and lexical stimuli presented to the child.
- They can choose their targets and the number of stimulus trials at each level.
- It has the option to use a large number of photos and video recordings from the app or customize it by uploading images and videos.
Speech Therapy for Apraxia App Bundle
The Speech Therapy for Apraxia app bundle comprises four apps for Apraxia which include:
- Speech Therapy for Apraxia
- Speech Therapy Apraxia Words
- Speech Therapy Apraxia 2 Syllables
- Speech Therapy Apraxia Endings
The apps are very convenient to use and are effective in treating:
- Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech
- Adults with Apraxia of speech
- Any individual working with persons with Apraxia (caregivers or therapists)
The apps are developed by the National Association for Child Development team, including a certified speech-language pathologist. These apps provide a wide range of choices of various phonemes to target. You can also move to the next level as your child progresses. You can start working at the syllable level and then move to the more complex productions. The apps also include the following features:
- You can choose from 8 consonant groups (for a total of 19 consonant sounds) to target and practice.
- For each consonant group, select the level you want to practice.
- You get detailed instructions that explain how to choose an appropriate consonant group and practice level.
- You also get images and audio features for each syllable.
- There is an option to repeat or reset levels or move up to the next level.
Using apps for Apraxia of speech for children can be fun but requires supervision from a certified speech-language pathologist. Don’t hesitate to contact a certified speech-language pathologist if you are a parent or want to learn more about Apraxia therapy.