Literacy Related Problems
Since developmental verbal dyspraxia is a spoken language disorder, children with this communicative disability could encounter problems with developing phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness refers to one's ability to manipulate the structure of utterances into words, syllables, and sounds taken from it's meaning. This skill is imperative for children when learning to read and write. Children must be able to decode printed letters back to sounds within a word. Phonological awareness includes skills such as recognition and production of rhyme, identification of the number of syllables, sound to word matching, and sound deletion and segmentation. Since developmental verbal dyspraxia can result in phonological impairments, children can experience sound segmentation difficulties when processing sound sequences within novel words. If these types of speech difficulties persist for children beyond ages 5 and 6 years-old, then they are definitely at risk of having literacy difficulties.
Other Communicative Risks
In terms of speech, language, and communication, children diagnosed with developmental verbal dyspraxia can experience the following:
- Feelings of frustration due to a lack of their message being communicated.
- Difficulty with other motor skills such as writing or riding a bike.
- Difficulty performing movements with their tongue and lips when prompted to do so.
- Use a limited number of consonant sounds when speaking.
- Difficulty with saying longer (rather than shorter) words and sentences.
Example of Potential Risks
Watch the following clip of a three-year-old girl with developmental verbal dyspraxia. She regularly sees a speech therapist to help her with speech disorder. You will notice some of the potential risks associated with developmental verbal dyspraxia for children.
Since developmental verbal dyspraxia is a spoken language disorder, children with this communicative disability could encounter problems with developing phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness refers to one's ability to manipulate the structure of utterances into words, syllables, and sounds taken from it's meaning. This skill is imperative for children when learning to read and write. Children must be able to decode printed letters back to sounds within a word. Phonological awareness includes skills such as recognition and production of rhyme, identification of the number of syllables, sound to word matching, and sound deletion and segmentation. Since developmental verbal dyspraxia can result in phonological impairments, children can experience sound segmentation difficulties when processing sound sequences within novel words. If these types of speech difficulties persist for children beyond ages 5 and 6 years-old, then they are definitely at risk of having literacy difficulties.
Other Communicative Risks
In terms of speech, language, and communication, children diagnosed with developmental verbal dyspraxia can experience the following:
- Feelings of frustration due to a lack of their message being communicated.
- Difficulty with other motor skills such as writing or riding a bike.
- Difficulty performing movements with their tongue and lips when prompted to do so.
- Use a limited number of consonant sounds when speaking.
- Difficulty with saying longer (rather than shorter) words and sentences.
Example of Potential Risks
Watch the following clip of a three-year-old girl with developmental verbal dyspraxia. She regularly sees a speech therapist to help her with speech disorder. You will notice some of the potential risks associated with developmental verbal dyspraxia for children.