Acquired Speech Apraxia is not a disorder which cannot be recovered from. There are a few cases in which people suffering from this disorder recover a part of their speech or maybe all of it too. It is also known as spontaneous recovery. But this case is not frequent in developmental speech apraxia. Children suffering from developmental apraxia usually never recover this problem by themselves. In such cases, Speech Therapy is quite helpful. It is also helpful in cases of acquired speech apraxia when the child does not recover.
Treatments for Apraxia:
Pathologists (doctors who study causes of diseases) of speech-language try different ways to treat Apraxia. But till now, no single way has proved to be very effective. For every different individual, different therapy is tailor-made. Each individual has different response to the therapy. Few make more and faster progress than others. Individuals with this disorder need frequent and intensive therapies.
In many cases, people with this disorder may also need to communicate in other forms. They may use sign languages-both formal and informal, write words and show people or might use a writing and speech producing portable computer.
According to experts, the following treatments can be used to treat patients suffering from Apraxia:
- Proper and intensive direct therapy must be provided by the Pathologist.
- Change the long term goals of treatment into shorter ones. Short term goals also reduce stress and are more concrete and direct.
- Encourage the child to establish a positive way of how he/she communicates.
- If the level of apraxia is severe, basic communication means like communicative boards or sign language should be used. This way the child would develop socialising skills and wont feel bored.
- Teaching should be slower but more rhythmic.
- Teach consonants first which have frequent occurrence.
- Combine visual and tactile (which we can touch or feel) symbols with sound. This would help the individual to understand in a better way.
