Ages: 2-12
Grades: Toddler-7

Evaluate and treat childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) using principles of motor learning with an emphasis on speech movements and syllable shapes.

The authors have combined their years of practical experience with current research to give you a handbook on childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) that tells you how to:

• evaluate and differentially diagnose CAS
• treat CAS based on its unique characteristics
• develop basic communicationlearning skills such as joint attention and interaction, turn-taking, imitation, on-task behavior, and increasing vocalizations and verbalizations
• progress clients through eight levels of intervention to develop intelligble speech
• incorporate prosody and language goals into every level of therapy
• provide effective multisensory cues

An eight-level hierarchy of speech tasks emphasizes speech movements and sound sequences based on principles of motor learning:

• Level 1: Stabilize existing vowels and consonant sounds
• Level 2: Sequence established vowels and consonants in CV and VC syllables
• Level 3: Teach new vowel and consonant sounds
• Level 4: Produce CVCV and VCVC syllable sequences (emphasis on using established CV and VC syllables from Level 2)
• Level 5: Close established CV and VC syllables with an established consonant sound to produce CVC words
• Level 6: Produce multisyllabic words from stabilized sounds, syllables, and CVC words
• Level 7: Produce consonant clusters and blends in words
• Level 8: Produce phrases and sentences (sequencing syllables to form phrases and sentences begins as early as level 2)

Extra helps include:

• specific therapy techniques outlined step-by-step with visual helps
• informal evaluation tools
• reproducible lesson pages and pictures
• tracking chart
• pictures and directions for consonant hand signals
• techniques to facilitate correct consonant sound production
• ideas for making fun practice materials

183-pages • 8.5 x 11, softcover book with additional reproducible pages (evaluation tools, forms, therapy activities) • ©2006