10-Minute Speech Practice That Doesn't Require Sitting Still

Last updated 2026-07-09

What is the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association and what does it actually do?

The group most parents mean when they say "the childhood apraxia of speech association" is Apraxia Kids, legally incorporated as the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA). Sharon Gretz founded it in 2000, after her own son was diagnosed with CAS. It has run as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ever since. ^[1]

The mission is narrow on purpose: improve the lives of children with CAS through research, education, and community. Plenty of broad speech and language nonprofits exist. None of them treats CAS as their entire reason for being.

In practice, Apraxia Kids does four things parents care about.

First, it trains clinicians. The Certified Apraxia Kids Specialist (CAKS) program credentials SLPs who finish specialized CAS coursework and pass a competency review. As of 2024, more than 1,300 CAKS-certified providers appear in the free online directory. ^[1]

Second, it funds peer-reviewed research. Apraxia Kids has awarded grants to university researchers studying motor speech disorders in children. Without a dedicated funding stream, CAS competes poorly against more common conditions for NIH dollars.

Third, it gives away family education. The website hosts downloadable guides, recorded webinars, and articles written in plain language instead of clinical jargon.

Fourth, it runs the annual Apraxia Kids National Conference, the largest gathering of CAS families and specialists anywhere. More on that below.

How common is childhood apraxia of speech, and why does an entire organization exist for it?

CAS affects roughly 1 to 2 children per 1,000, which makes it rare compared to other speech sound disorders. ^[9] The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) calls it "a motor speech disorder" in which "the child has difficulty planning and programming the sequences of movements needed for speech," without muscular weakness or paralysis as the cause. ^[2]

That rarity is exactly why a dedicated association matters. Most SLPs see very few CAS cases in a year. A 2019 survey of practicing SLPs found gaps in CAS-specific training are common in graduate programs, which is part of why misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis still happen. ^[3] A child can spend years in general speech therapy that was never built for the motor-planning problem at the core of CAS, making slow or no progress, before a correct diagnosis finally changes the plan.

Apraxia Kids exists to close that gap. Train more clinicians properly. Get families accurate information faster. Fund the research that improves both.

For a closer look at the diagnosis itself, the childhood apraxia of speech overview covers diagnostic criteria and what to expect at an evaluation.

What is the Apraxia Kids National Conference, and should you go?

The Apraxia Kids National Conference runs once a year, usually late June or early July, in a U.S. city that rotates. It pulls SLPs, researchers, and families together for two to three days of sessions, from clinical training for therapists to hands-on workshops for parents.

Go if any of these describe you.

Your child was recently diagnosed and you are still trying to understand CAS. The family-track sessions translate clinical research into home strategies you can actually run, no speech pathology degree required.

You want to find a specialist you can trust. Attendees include the SLPs most serious about CAS in their region. Talking to them in person before you book an evaluation is a real advantage.

Your current therapist wants to build their CAS skills. The continuing education sessions count toward ASHA CEU requirements, so many clinicians attend for exactly that.

Registration fees vary by attendee type. The 2024 conference listed early-bird family registration at roughly $150 to $250 per person, with reduced student rates and scholarships for families who cannot afford full price. Apraxia Kids posts a scholarship application each spring. ^[1] Pricing shifts year to year, so check the Apraxia Kids website for the current conference.

The conference also has a vendor floor where AAC device companies, app developers, and therapy material publishers set up. If you have been wondering about AAC devices for your child, seeing several options in one place and asking real questions beats any product page.

How do you find a qualified CAS therapist through Apraxia Kids?

The Apraxia Kids provider directory at apraxia-kids.org is the best starting tool for finding a local specialist. You search by ZIP code and filter for the Certified Apraxia Kids Specialist (CAKS) credential. ^[1]

CAKS certification requires an SLP to finish specific CAS coursework and pass a competency review. It is a real signal, more than a participation badge. But the absence of CAKS does not mean a therapist cannot treat CAS well. Many excellent SLPs have trained heavily in motor speech disorders without chasing this particular credential. Use the directory as a starting point, not a hard filter.

When you call a prospective therapist, ask three questions directly.

How many children with CAS do you currently treat, or have you treated in the past year? Experience with CAS specifically predicts better outcomes. A therapist who has treated ten CAS cases confidently beats one who has only read about it.

Which CAS treatment approaches do you use? Evidence-supported approaches include Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme (NDP3), and Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST). ^[4] If a therapist names only general articulation therapy with no motor-planning method, ask why.

What session frequency do you recommend for a child at my child's severity? CAS usually needs more intensive therapy than other speech sound disorders, often two to four sessions per week at the start. Once a month for a child with moderate to severe CAS is a yellow flag.

For context on the broader therapy process, see our guide to speech therapy and speech therapists.

What evidence-based CAS treatments does Apraxia Kids recommend?

Apraxia Kids does not endorse a single treatment brand, but it publishes a treatment overview naming the approaches with the strongest research base. As of its most recent guidance, those include the following.

Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), developed by Edythe Strand at Mayo Clinic, uses slowed simultaneous production with heavy cueing that fades as the child improves. The randomized controlled trial evidence for DTTC is among the strongest for any CAS treatment. ^[4]

The Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme (NDP3), developed in the UK, builds speech from individual sounds up through longer sequences using pictures and structured drill. It has a solid evidence base, especially for younger and more severely affected children.

Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST), developed in Australia, targets multisyllabic words and prosody and has been tested in several small RCTs. ^[4]

Intensity matters no matter which approach you use. A 2021 systematic review in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research found that more intensive dosing produced better outcomes in CAS, with high-frequency sessions generally beating low-frequency sessions at the same total trial count. ^[5]

Apraxia Kids warns against approaches with no motor-planning component. Auditory discrimination training and general phonological awareness programs that are not paired with motor practice are not enough on their own for CAS.

If CAS shows up alongside autism, the treatment picture shifts. Our piece on autism spectrum speech therapy covers those overlaps.

How is CAS diagnosed, and what role does Apraxia Kids play in the diagnostic process?

Apraxia Kids does not diagnose. That belongs entirely to a licensed speech-language pathologist, ideally one with motor speech experience. What the organization does is help parents understand what a good evaluation looks like and how to ask for one.

ASHA's technical report on CAS names three core diagnostic features: inconsistent errors on consonants and vowels, lengthened and disrupted transitions between sounds and syllables, and inappropriate prosody, especially in stress on words and phrases. ^[11] A child does not have to show all three every time, and severity runs wide, from mildly disordered speech to children who are largely unintelligible.

CAS gets misread as a phonological disorder, an articulation disorder, or a language delay all the time. The label matters because the treatment differs. Phonological therapy targets rule-based sound patterns. CAS therapy targets the motor planning system.

For a full walkthrough of the diagnostic criteria and what to bring to an evaluation, the apraxia of speech article goes deeper on the clinical side.

Parents can download the Apraxia Kids "Is It Apraxia?" guide before an appointment to document what they see at home. It does not replace a professional evaluation, but it hands the SLP useful observational data that speeds things up.

Does Apraxia Kids have resources for kids who also use AAC?

Yes, and the organization has put real effort here. Many children with moderate to severe CAS use augmentative and alternative communication while they build verbal speech, and for years there was little guidance on running both at once.

Apraxia Kids now publishes resources specifically on AAC-plus-speech therapy for CAS, including a stated position that AAC does not reduce speech output and should not be withheld while verbal speech develops. That matches ASHA's current guidance on AAC. ^[6]

Children with CAS who are largely unintelligible or not yet combining words are strong candidates for a low-tech or high-tech AAC evaluation. The conference regularly runs sessions on this intersection.

For a primer on how AAC works and which device types suit different ages and abilities, see AAC devices.

Apraxia Kids also covers the overlap between CAS and other diagnoses, including autism. Roughly 7 to 12 percent of children with autism are estimated to have co-occurring CAS, though exact prevalence data are thin because systematic screening rarely happens in autism evaluations. ^[2]

What free resources does Apraxia Kids provide for home practice?

The Apraxia Kids website gives away a meaningful amount of material, well past marketing copy. The most useful free pieces:

The Family Start Guide, a downloadable PDF covering what CAS is, how diagnosis works, what therapy should look like, and how to deal with insurance. It is a reasonable first read after a new diagnosis.

Webinar recordings, many featuring researchers and clinicians who otherwise only speak at professional conferences. Topics run from DTTC home practice strategies to school-based services under IDEA.

The reading list, which pulls together peer-reviewed articles and books about CAS in plain language.

The parent community forum, where families trade experiences, ask questions, and name specific local providers. This is genuinely useful for finding therapists in areas the CAKS directory does not reach.

For home practice between sessions, structured repetition tools help. Apps built around frequent, low-effort motor practice are one way parents supplement in-clinic work. Little Words, for one, was built to give neurodivergent children bite-sized speech and language practice in a no-pressure setting, and it includes a free assessment at littlewords.ai to match activities to where a child actually is. No app replaces an SLP with CAS-specific training, though.

Some families also benefit from early intervention services before age three, which are federally mandated under IDEA Part C and free to families. Apraxia Kids keeps a page specifically on navigating early intervention for CAS. ^[8]

Does health insurance cover CAS therapy, and can Apraxia Kids help with that?

Coverage for CAS speech therapy swings hard by state, insurer, and plan type. No federal law guarantees insurance coverage for CAS speech therapy specifically, though the Affordable Care Act requires most plans to cover habilitative services, and many state parity laws widen that coverage.

Apraxia Kids publishes an insurance navigation guide covering:

How to write a letter of medical necessity with your SLP.

How to appeal a denial using the diagnostic literature (citing ASHA's CAS technical report carries weight). ^[11]

State-specific resources, including which states have the strongest habilitative service mandates.

In practice, many families hit partial coverage, high copays, or visit caps. Typical out-of-pocket cost for intensive CAS therapy (two to four sessions per week) runs from $200 to $600 or more per month, depending on region and whether you see a private practice or a university clinic. Variation is wide and no reliable national survey exists. University clinic rates generally run 40 to 60 percent below private practice rates.

School-based services under IDEA are a separate path. If a child's CAS affects their ability to access the educational curriculum, the district must provide services at no cost. Apraxia Kids has detailed IDEA guides and will connect families with parent advocates in their state. ^[8]

How does Apraxia Kids compare to ASHA and other speech disorder organizations?

These organizations are not competitors. They work at different levels and do different jobs.

ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) is the professional credentialing and standards body for SLPs in the U.S. It sets clinical practice guidelines, certifies clinicians, and publishes the major journals in the field. ASHA has a technical report and practice portal on CAS that are the clinical gold standard. ^[2] But ASHA is not a family-support organization. It runs no parent hotline and no therapist directory filtered by CAS specialty.

Apraxia Kids fills the space between the clinical establishment and the family kitchen table. It turns ASHA guidance into family language, pushes for CAS research funding, and connects families to providers.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at NIH is the federal research funder. It has funded CAS research and publishes a CAS fact sheet. ^[9] It does not provide family support services.

For UK families, AFASIC and the Nuffield Hearing and Speech Centre are more relevant, and the NDP3 program came out of the UK context.

What should parents do first after a CAS diagnosis?

A new CAS diagnosis lands hard. Most parents describe a mix of relief (finally, a name for what we have been watching) and dread (what now?). Here is a practical sequence, not a perfect one.

Get a second opinion if you are not confident in the diagnosing SLP's CAS experience. CAS is misdiagnosed in both directions, and a second evaluation by a CAKS-certified provider or a university motor speech clinic is worth the wait.

Search the Apraxia Kids provider directory right away. Filter for CAKS providers within a reasonable distance. If none exist locally, ask about telehealth. Remote CAS therapy delivered by an experienced SLP has research support and is a legitimate option. Our online speech therapy overview covers what to look for in a remote provider.

Download the Family Start Guide from apraxia-kids.org before your next appointment so you can ask informed questions from day one.

Request an early intervention evaluation if your child is under three, or an IEP evaluation from your school district if your child is school-aged. Both are free, legally protected processes. ^[8]

Join the Apraxia Kids parent community. The practical knowledge there, especially which local providers other families have had success with, is not available anywhere else.

For families dealing with CAS alongside other speech and language issues, echolalia and echolalia meaning come up often when autism and CAS overlap.

At Little Words, we see families do best when they pair strong clinical therapy with low-stakes daily practice at home. To see where your child's speech and language skills sit right now, the quiz at littlewords.ai/start takes about three minutes and gives you a personalized snapshot.

Frequently asked questions

Is Apraxia Kids (CASANA) a legitimate nonprofit?

Yes. Apraxia Kids, legally CASANA, has run as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit since 2000. Its financials are public through its annual reports and on Charity Navigator. A parent of a child with CAS founded it, and it remains family-centered in its governance.

How do I find a CAS-certified speech therapist near me?

Use the free provider directory at apraxia-kids.org and filter by the Certified Apraxia Kids Specialist (CAKS) credential. Search by ZIP code. If no local CAKS providers appear, telehealth from an experienced SLP is a well-supported alternative. University speech clinics are another option, often at lower cost, with strong motor speech training.

What is the Certified Apraxia Kids Specialist (CAKS) credential?

CAKS is a credential Apraxia Kids awards to SLPs who finish specialized CAS training and pass a competency review. More than 1,300 providers held it as of 2024. It signals real CAS-specific knowledge, though many excellent CAS therapists practice without this particular credential if they trained through other routes.

When is the Apraxia Kids National Conference each year?

The Apraxia Kids National Conference usually takes place in late June or early July. The host city rotates annually across the U.S. Registration opens several months ahead, and scholarship applications for families who cannot afford full price are usually available in the spring. Check apraxia-kids.org for current-year details.

Can a child with CAS use AAC while still learning to talk?

Yes, and Apraxia Kids supports it plainly. Research and ASHA guidance both indicate that AAC use does not reduce verbal speech development and should not be withheld. Children with CAS who are largely unintelligible often benefit from AAC as a communication bridge while motor speech therapy continues in parallel.

What is the best treatment approach for childhood apraxia of speech?

The approaches with the strongest evidence are Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme (NDP3), and Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST). All target motor planning rather than sound rules. Intensity matters: two to four sessions per week is typical for moderate to severe CAS. General articulation therapy alone is not adequate.

Is CAS covered by health insurance?

Coverage varies by state, plan, and insurer. The ACA requires most plans to include habilitative services, which covers speech therapy in many cases, but visit caps and high copays are common. Apraxia Kids publishes an insurance navigation guide and letter-of-medical-necessity templates. School-based services under IDEA are free if CAS affects educational access.

How is childhood apraxia of speech different from a speech delay?

A general speech delay means a child is acquiring speech later than typical but following the normal developmental sequence. CAS is a specific motor speech disorder: the child has trouble planning and sequencing the movements needed for speech, regardless of language knowledge. CAS needs different, motor-focused therapy, more than time or general language stimulation.

Can autism and childhood apraxia of speech occur together?

Yes. Estimates suggest roughly 7 to 12 percent of children with autism have co-occurring CAS, though systematic screening is rare so true prevalence may differ. The combination affects therapy planning because both the motor speech and social-communication sides need attention. An SLP experienced in both areas matters here.

Does Apraxia Kids have resources for school-age children and IEPs?

Yes. Apraxia Kids publishes detailed guides on school-based services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including how to request an IEP evaluation, what to ask for in the IEP, and how to connect with parent advocates. If CAS affects a child's ability to access the curriculum, the district must provide services at no cost.

Are there Apraxia Kids local chapters or support groups?

Apraxia Kids keeps a network of volunteer-led local affiliate groups across the U.S. and a parent community forum online. Local groups vary in activity by region. The online forum stays consistently active and is especially useful for finding well-regarded local SLPs based on firsthand parent experience.

How early can childhood apraxia of speech be diagnosed?

CAS can be suspected as early as 18 to 24 months when a toddler has very limited word attempts, highly variable sound productions, or a limited consonant inventory compared to peers. A firm diagnosis is easier after age two to three when there is more speech to observe. Early intervention services can begin before a firm diagnosis based on motor speech concerns.

What should I bring to a CAS evaluation?

Bring a written list of the words and sounds your child uses, video recordings of their speech at home (home speech often differs from clinic behavior), any previous evaluation reports, and a note on family history of speech or language disorders. The Apraxia Kids 'Is It Apraxia?' guide includes an observation checklist you can fill out beforehand.

Sources

1. Apraxia Kids (CASANA) — Organization overview and CAKS directory: Apraxia Kids founded 2000; CAKS credential; over 1,300 certified providers; annual conference; scholarship applications
2. ASHA — Childhood Apraxia of Speech practice portal: CAS defined as motor speech disorder affecting planning and programming of movement sequences; AAC guidance; autism co-occurrence
3. Iuzzini-Seigel J et al. (2019) — Survey of SLP training in CAS, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools: Gaps in CAS-specific graduate training are common among practicing SLPs
4. Murray E, McCabe P, Ballard K (2015) — RCT comparing DTTC, NDP3, and ReST, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research: DTTC, NDP3, and ReST are evidence-supported CAS treatments; RCT evidence reviewed
5. Gildersleeve-Neumann C et al. (2021) — Systematic review of dosing in CAS, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research: More intensive dosing (higher session frequency) produced better outcomes in CAS than low-frequency equivalent-trial approaches
6. ASHA — Augmentative and Alternative Communication practice portal: AAC does not inhibit speech development and should not be withheld while verbal speech is being developed
7. U.S. Department of Education — Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): IDEA requires school districts to provide free speech therapy services when a disability affects educational access; Part C covers early intervention birth to age 3
8. NIDCD (NIH) — Childhood Apraxia of Speech fact sheet: Federal overview of CAS prevalence (roughly 1 to 2 per 1,000), causes, and research; NIDCD funds CAS research
9. American Academy of Pediatrics — Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics: AAP guidance on developmental surveillance and referral for speech and language concerns in early childhood
10. ASHA — CAS Technical Report (2007): ASHA technical report establishing CAS as a distinct motor speech disorder with three core diagnostic features used in insurance appeals