The act of speaking is a complex process that involves processes of the brain and the muscles of the mouth, face, tongue and soft palate, as well as all the pathways in between the brain and the muscles.
When you cannot assign the correct timing and force for activating the muscles needed to produce speech, and the movements associated with the sounds and words don’t occur, this is Apraxia/Dyspraxia. In other words, Apraxia/Dyspraxia is a motor speech disorder where messages from the brain have difficulty reaching the mouth. As a result, speech is difficult to understand.
It is characterized by inconsistent sound productions, in other words errors are not the same on repetition. Speech can be significantly limited and unclear.
It is a neurological disorder but is not caused but weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles (in the jaw, tongue and lips). Rather it affects brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements involved in speech production.
Vowels are often distorted, and longer complex words are harder to say. They may appear to be groping for words and say it correctly on occasion. Errors in tone, stress and rhythm are noted.
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