Research and Trends of Childhood Apraxia - Essay Example

Abstract

Childhood Apraxia is a speech-related syndrome that develops in children and needs to be addressed to provide solutions on the services that can improve it. My research is chiefly focused on particularising what Child Apraxia is and the trends that the ailment has shown on its victims. Parents need to know how this disorder occurs and what else may come up as a result of developing it. There might be controversies on the nature of childhood apraxia, especially when it is mistaken for speech delay since they seem to have related symptoms. Still, childhood apraxia has persistent characteristics with no possibilities of outgrowing them.

Incidences of Childhood apraxia are not highly recognized due to wrong diagnosis guidelines and procedures given over the disorder. Not much research is done regarding this disorder, and I elaborate on why this is the case. I also provide the ratio of the most vulnerable gender to Childhood apraxia and the most common way to notice it, including but not limited to having a higher prevalence of concurrent speech delay, speech errors, and galactosaemic.

Childhood apraxia is, therefore, a speech sound disorder characterized by inadequate babbling, scarcity in phonetic diversity, inconsistent errors of speech, omissions of initial syllables while conversing, and the predominant use of simple syllable shapes. There is no cure for this disorder. With early and close attention to children developing this disorder, they may be able to converse well again. Lastly, I will focus on the trends of childhood apraxia and the progress in research in providing a long-term solution to this challenge.

Research and trends of Childhood Apraxia

Childhood Apraxia, often referred to as Childhood Apraxia of Speech, is a rare form of speech ailment that occurs in children, rendering them unable to make accurate movements while speaking (Iuzzini-Seigel, 2019). The brain is believed to have problems planning, directing, and coordinating actions that bring about speech because the speech muscles perform abnormally. This disorder has sometimes been referred to as verbal Apraxia or verbal dyspraxia. A child with this disorder will often have difficulties when conversing with other children.

Since speech relies on the human brain, childhood apraxia comes from the brain's failure to initiate expression. It is acquired during speech development and can be hereditary. Childhood Apraxia may be associated with some neurological events such as intrauterine, trauma, or brain cancer. Since it is the brain's function to command speech muscles for motor movements in the lips, tongue, jaws, and the palate, when affected, it would be challenging to initiate the speech production process (Lewis et al. 2004). Children developing speech usually will seek approval for mastery from those around them through simple conversation. The internal sensory system validates whether the produced words match the ones they intend to say. Still, when this is not successfully achieved, then the child is a victim of childhood apraxia.

There are a lot of symptoms that foresee the possibilities of a child developing childhood apraxia. These symptoms may vary due to the children's age and the sternness of the speech they give. According to (Duchow et al. 2019), in the journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Childhood apraxia of expression may be associated with children producing an unlimited number of spoken words, delayed production of the first words after birth and the capacity of the child making only a few consonants or vowels sounds throughout. A parent may notice these abnormalities when the child is between 18 months and 24 months. A child aged between 2-4 years ought to have developed most of his or her speech. Still, if this is not the case, then he or she might be developing Apraxia of the address, and this may be true when the symptoms involved are the separation of syllables in words while speaking, voicing errors which makes it challenging to produce the exact pronunciation of a word and distortions in vowels and consonant sounds. The child may also experience difficulty trying to get the tongue and lips to aid him, or she speaks (Duchow et al. 2019). Childhood Apraxia may best be noticed in children experiencing language problems such as inappropriate word order and reduced vocabulary.

Since there are other speech-related disorders, there is a possibility of diagnosis misinterpretation because of the contradiction of diagnostic guidelines and procedures, lack of validated diagnosing equipment, and similarities in symptoms expressed (Shriberg, 1997). This case may result in wrong solutions provided for a wrong disorder. Therefore, it is essential to keenly analyze whether the ailment being treated is childhood apraxia and not other related disorders such as stuttering, dysarthria, or aphasia. For the achievement of proper diagnosis for childhood apraxia, it is essential to have the symptoms that distinguish it from other disorders (Duchow et. el. 2019) Such distinctions include the difficulty in articulating sounds, groping movements with lips, jaws, and the tongue to aid in creating the right movements necessary in producing speech sounds, vowels distortions and making wrong stresses in words.

Childhood Apraxia is estimated to be present in at least 2% of the children living in a 1000 square meter area (Shriberg et al. 1997). The estimated ratio of the disorder in terms of gender is 3:1 in males and females, respectively. It is reported that Children with Apraxia are very delicate and prone to developing other syndromes like galactosemia, fragile x syndrome velo cardio facial syndrome.

Childhood Apraxia may be demoralizing to children who cannot intelligibly and comprehensively communicate with other people. Thus it is why it is essential to have treatment measures over this disability. Measures should be put in place to help such children facilitate their communication through increasing speech production proficiency. Applying gesticulations, voice output devices, physical signs, and specific context communication boards may help resolve their problems (Yorkston, 1996). Children affected with Apraxia can undergo an intense personalized treatment to manage motor speech disorder. This treatment requires the repetitive practice of what the children need to adopt and should be done with essential people in their lives present, such as parents. There must be in a naturalistic environment of the kid to carry over and generalize the skills practiced.

According to a survey by clinicians specialized in children's Apraxia of speech (Randazzoa, 2019). Children with Childhood Apraxia often have phonological and language impairment and so motoric and linguistic deficits. The two are considered when diagnosing Apraxia. In this case, a child with mild motoric deficits will need linguistic approaches to convey in the ideologies of motor learning to ease movement accuracy. The speech production treatment approaches to curb childhood apraxia include motor programming tactics, linguistic methods, a combination of the approaches, and rhythmic approaches. In case oral communication is not clear at this point, then Argumentative and alternative communication should be applied to support and enhance verbal speech production.

There are, however, other treatment options for Childhood apraxia, which stresses the movement of patterns against sound patterns. They involve determining the utmost precise productions' probable and sensual cueing approaches, incorporating the child (Alhaidary, 2019). The sensible strategies are used to clarify the movement sequences that aid speech. They are vital in speech production by providing additional feedback to the child if he or she does not receive enough intrinsic sensory feedback. A child will be diagnosed with either shaping or sensory queuing contingent on aspects such as the brutality of the ailment or the child's communication needs. It is also advisable to use multiple approaches since the symptoms of the affected children vary from one child to another within different periods.

Conclusion

Victims of Childhood Apraxia can improve their speech through high practice, following treatment guidelines given by the specialists, using alternative feedback modalities, and mastering the knowledge of performance. Since the treatment for Childhood Apraxia takes a long duration, it is essential for parents and guardians to support their children to make progress in the practices advised. Motor based interventions are the best and should be embraced wholeheartedly. This diagnosis requires the children to meet three main consensuses: inconsistency of words and syllables disrupted and elongated articulatory transitions and inappropriateness in prosody. The diagnosis becomes more accurate when the children are well aware of the intentions towards achieving comprehensible and intelligible communication.