Apraxia of Speech

Apraxia of Speech (AoS) is a speech disorder.  People with AoS have sensorimotor problems positioning and sequentially moving their muscles for speech production.  AoS is caused by damage to the speech motor-programming areas of the brain in the dominant hemisphere.  It should not be confused with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, which has a different cause and characteristics.  A few points about AoS:

  • AoS is a problem of motor speech programming – not a problem with the face, tongue, palate or other speech muscles;
  • AoS is usually caused by a stroke, and sometimes by tumour, trauma or disease. Stroke survivors who have AoS often also have aphasia and/or dysarthria;
  • AoS symptoms include distorted sound substitutions (e.g. “put” for “but”) and additions (e.g. “belue” for “blue”), decreased accuracy with an increased rate of speech, “groping” behaviours as they try to find the right way to say a word, and an awareness and attempts to correct speech errors.

 

Man wearing glasses and a suit, standing in front of a bay

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

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