Co-articulation in Apraxia therapy

Co-articulation is a useful approach with children speech sound disorders.  It is especially helpful for children with CAS as prosody errors are common.

Click here for a great handout!

Co-articulation Explained:

• Co-articulation refers to how a sound is influenced by neighboring sounds.
• Consider co-articulation when setting speech targets, as it can aid children in acquiring new sounds or improving accuracy with sounds they already know.
• Utilizing co-articulation can enhance the natural flow of phrases.

Children with CAS often have difficulty with prosody.  Prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Using co-articulation is a great therapy technique for improving prosodic errors.

How does this look in therapy? Practice words in phrases!

• Blending the last sound in the first word with the first sound in the second word i.e. the phrase "do it" is practiced as "do wit", "see it" is practiced as "see yit"
• Don't overemphasize the final sounds in words i.e. in the phrase "I want to go", combine the /t/ in "want" and the /t/ in "to" as one sound. Try it now! In NY I practice that phrase as "I wanna go".  Perfectly acceptable pronunciation. 
• Combining a final sound in a word with the same sound in the initial position, for example, "chewing gum" or "blowing gum," can help focus on either the final sound or the initial sound, depending on your practice goals.
• Be sure to choose words that have sounds that can facilitate the production of other sounds in the word (also called phonetic shaping) i.e. EAT: high vowel & high consonant, SHOE: lip rounding for both sounds 

Click here to see therapy in action

Another therapy video

Click here for more information about working on phrases