Speech

Children often pause or repeat a sound or word when speaking. This can be normal and may go away over time. However, for some children, it happens more often and does not go away on its own. This is called stuttering.

Signs of stuttering may include:

• repeating sounds of words, such as “p-p-p-pen” for “pen”

• stretching out sounds, such as “ffffamily” for “family”

• pausing a lot when speaking

Children with childhood apraxia of speech have difficulty speaking due to trouble sending messages from their brain to their mouth muscles. The child often knows what they want to say and have adequate muscle strength but may not be able to move their tongue or lips in the right ways.

Signs of Childhood Apraxia of Speech may include:

• not always saying words the same way every time

• able to say shorter words more clearly than longer words

• distorting or changing sounds

• speaking at a slower rate

• putting stress on the wrong syllable or word

• making extra movement of the tongue and lips as they prepare to speak