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Therapy Techniques For Apraxia: Visual, Tactile, and Auditory Feedback

© Schatze Rasmussen

Apraxia therapy can feel complicated and it may take a long time to see progress. Most skills need to be practiced until they become automatic; this why most progress takes quite a while to see. The speech therapist involved can give practical ideas and activities for home practice. It is vital to get as many of the five senses involved in the learning of speech as possible.

Visual Feedback

Many therapists use mirrors because it is important for a patient to see how her lips, tongue and jaw move when she tries different speech sounds and words. If the therapist sits and looks into a mirror, the student can watch the movements and try to get her own muscles to move the same way. This is also a way to get the patient to “over-learn” a sound or word so it becomes more automatic.

Tactile Feedback

Sometimes there is a need to rub or pat certain oral parts such as the lips, the tongue, or the roof of the mouth with different types of textures such as cotton balls, feathers, or swabs so the person becomes aware of these oral areas. Sometimes apraxic patients do not use these areas in speech because they can not feel them or sense them.

Pressure like light pinching, hard pressure, or patting is sometimes needed. Even food, such as peanut butter or marshmallow crème, is used to get more sensory feedback to certain parts of the mouth. For example, if a child has difficulty making an /f/ sound, maybe using their upper teeth to clean marshmallow crème off their lower lip might provide good tactile feedback to help them use their muscles to make that sound in a word.

Auditory Feedback

Students need to hear the sound, how to use their muscles to make the sound, and even know when they are doing some sound/word perfectly. It is vitally important to use all 3 techniques at the same time to get the best results.

The amount of neurological involvement experienced, the amount of therapy practiced, and the support and help received from family and friends each effect progress.

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