Childhood Apraxia Of Speech Vs. Autism – What’s The Connection?

In many different fields of healthcare, you’ll find overlap with different disorders.

Speech therapy is no different.

Here at District Speech, we provide speech therapy in Washington DC for a wide variety of different speech and language delays and disorders.

So we understand the connection between these diagnoses.

Today, we’re going to look at two in particular – autism and childhood apraxia of speech.

We’ll look at each diagnosis separately, and explore the connection between the two.

What Is Autism?

We’ve talked about autism at length on this blog before.

In particular, we have an entire article just to answer the question “what is autism?”

Check it out for more details.

You may also enjoy our article answering some frequently asked questions about autism.

But here’s a shorter definition.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference.

This means that your child’s brain has developed in a different way, offering them a unique perspective of experiencing the world.

The causes of autism aren’t fully known.

However, it seems like genetics plays an important role.

It’s typically diagnosed in childhood, but it remains with you your entire life.

Autism is characterized by a wide range of signs that can affect each person differently to varying degrees.

Hence why it’s on a spectrum.

Generally speaking, autistic people will present with differences in communication, repetitive behaviors, and difficulty with interpreting verbal and nonverbal social cues.

Some common signs of autism can include:

• Reliance on a routine
• Repetitive actions
• Repetitive physical behaviors
• Reluctance to change, both environmental and behavioral
• Partial or complete lack of speech
• Repetitive, monotone, or atypical sounds
• Repeating words or phrases
• Difficulty understanding nonverbal social cues
• Difficulty maintaining eye contact
• Difficulty understanding facial expressions
• Unusual response to sensory stimuli, such as light or sound

In some cases, autistic children may be nonspeaking, but that’s uncommon.

Speech therapy can help autistic children learn to use language and improve their communication skills.

Speech therapy can also help address social differences that autistic children may face, such as understanding social cues and learning how to interact in social situations.

What Is Childhood Apraxia Of Speech?

Likewise, we have a full article covering the details of what childhood apraxia of speech is and how it works.

We have an article answering some common questions about apraxia as well.

But we’ll outline it here for you as well.

With childhood apraxia of speech, the brain has difficulty communicating with your mouth and sending the right signals to coordinate the muscle movements required for speech.

It’s important to keep in mind that childhood apraxia of speech has nothing to do with the muscles required for speech being too weak.

If that’s the case, it’s dysarthria, which has similar symptoms but a different cause.

It directly relates to communication issues between the brain and speech muscles, such as the lips and tongue.

Childhood apraxia of speech also isn’t an intellectual disability.

This means your child likely knows exactly what they want to communicate, but has trouble doing so.

Childhood apraxia of speech can sometimes be idiopathic, which means that there is no known cause.

Other times it may be caused by:

• Pediatric traumatic brain injury shortly after birth
• Genetic disorders
• Brain infection
• Metabolic condition or syndrome
• Pediatric stroke

Some common signs and symptoms of childhood apraxia of speech can include:

• Limited vocabulary or speech sound production
• Saying the same word differently each time
• Distorted word sounds
• Emphasizing the wrong syllable
• Speech developmental delays
• Increased difficulty with longer words
• Mixing sounds, such as “P” and “B”
• Separating syllables
• Awkward transitions between one word or sound to another
• Difficulty imitating words
• Difficulty eating
• Choosing simpler words over more complicated ones
• Difficulty coordinating the mouth, jaw, lips, and tongue
• Anxiety related to speech

Speech therapy for childhood apraxia of speech can help your child learn how to coordinate mouth movement to produce specific speech sounds or words.

It can also help your child develop their communication using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods, if needed.

What’s The Connection Between Autism And Apraxia?

Autistic children are more likely to also have childhood apraxia of speech.

A lot more.

In fact, A 2015 study by Cheryl Tierney and Sally Lohs looked at a group of 30 children who’d had evaluations for autism and childhood apraxia of speech.

It found that 63.6% of kids who were diagnosed as autistic were later diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech.

On the other hand, 36% of kids who were diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech were later diagnosed as autistic.

This is a small sample size, of course.

Much more research is needed in this area.

Another study, this one from 2020 by Conti Et. Al. looked at the brain functions of people with each condition.

They gathered 26 autistic kids, 24 kids with childhood apraxia of speech, and 18 kids with typical development as a control.

Looking at their neurological structures, they found a number of similarities with the autistic and apraxia kids.

It found some differences as well – there wasn’t a perfect overlap.

And again, more research is needed.

But it does seem like there’s a relationship between the two.

Now, that said, not all autistic children have childhood apraxia of speech.

And not all kids with apraxia are autistic.

To further complicate the matter, other speech disorders are more common in autistic kids as well.

For example, there’s a link between stuttering and autism.

It’s important for your child to receive the right diagnosis for their condition in order to implement the appropriate treatment methods for their speech and communication difficulties.

Early intervention speech therapy is key to help them communicate more effectively and reach their speech developmental milestones.

What To Do If Your Autistic Child Has Apraxia Of Speech?

If your autistic child has childhood apraxia of speech, speech therapy can help.

Speech therapy treatments will look different for every child, and be tailored towards their specific speech and communication issues.

Therapy sessions will also be regularly re-evaluated and adapted to keep up with their changing needs.

Depending on your child’s communication and speech production level, speech therapy can help with things such as:

• Attention span
• Social interaction skills
• Increasing vocabulary
• Speech sound production

Traditional speech therapy for childhood apraxia of speech may be modified to incorporate teaching strategies that are known to be more effective for autistic children.

This can involve incorporating more play based strategies or adapting therapy strategies to be in line with your child’s interests and strengths, such as art.

Speech therapy for autistic children with childhood apraxia of speech can also include implementing augmentative and alternative communication strategies.

This is used when children are unable to speak in some or all situations, and allows them to access and develop their language skills.

Early intervention can help address your child’s needs early on and help them develop their language and speech skills to communicate more effectively and be more independent.

Book Your Appointment With District Speech Today

Are you concerned that your child may have a developmental disorder that’s affecting their speech and language skills?

Perhaps they have a speech delay, trouble producing speech, or social communication differences.

Whatever the case may be, we can help.

At District Speech we can evaluate your child’s condition and difficulties, and devise a tailored treatment plan to help them free their voice and get their development back on track.

Book your appointment with District Speech today.