05/21/2026
When SLPs describe Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) as a neurological speech disorder, it can sound overwhelming at first.
Some people hear the word “neurological” and mistakenly think it means intellectual disability …but that’s not accurate.
“Neurological” simply means speech starts in the brain, not in the mouth.
A child with CAS knows what they want to say, but their brain has difficulty planning and coordinating the movements needed for speech.
That’s why a motor-based approach is used in speech therapy that focuses on moving between sounds, syllables, and words.
