• About
  • What we do
    • Events
    • Membership
    • Learning Platform
    • Latest news
    • Meet the team
  • CAS
    • Diagnosis of CAS
    • CAS Assessment
    • Reading, literacy and CAS
    • Lived Experience CAS
    • CAS Therapy
    • Genetics and CAS
  • AOS
    • AOS PPAOS Therapy
    • Acquired AOS Diagnosis
    • Lived experience AOS
  • PPAOS
    • PPAOS Diagnosis
    • Lived experience PPAOS
  • Other conditions
  • More
    • About
    • What we do
      • Events
      • Membership
      • Learning Platform
      • Latest news
      • Meet the team
    • CAS
      • Diagnosis of CAS
      • CAS Assessment
      • Reading, literacy and CAS
      • Lived Experience CAS
      • CAS Therapy
      • Genetics and CAS
    • AOS
      • AOS PPAOS Therapy
      • Acquired AOS Diagnosis
      • Lived experience AOS
    • PPAOS
      • PPAOS Diagnosis
      • Lived experience PPAOS
    • Other conditions
  • About
  • What we do
    • Events
    • Membership
    • Learning Platform
    • Latest news
    • Meet the team
  • CAS
    • Diagnosis of CAS
    • CAS Assessment
    • Reading, literacy and CAS
    • Lived Experience CAS
    • CAS Therapy
    • Genetics and CAS
  • AOS
    • AOS PPAOS Therapy
    • Acquired AOS Diagnosis
    • Lived experience AOS
  • PPAOS
    • PPAOS Diagnosis
    • Lived experience PPAOS
  • Other conditions
Speech Apraxia UK

Giving a voice to individuals with apraxia of speech

Giving a voice to individuals with apraxia of speechGiving a voice to individuals with apraxia of speechGiving a voice to individuals with apraxia of speech

How we produce speech

Lung anatomy and dissection

Respiration, Phonation and Motor Speech Coordination

Respiration, Phonation and Motor Speech Coordination

Brief introduction:
A lung dissection showing important structures involved in respiration, including the trachea and bronchial tubes. It is particularly useful for connecting respiratory anatomy with swallowing, aspiration and speech breathing.


Key words: Lung anatomy, trachea, bronchi, aspiration, respiratory system, airway, speech breathing.


Key concept: The different angles of the right and left main bronchi help explain why aspirated material is more likely to enter the right bronchial tree

Respiration, Phonation and Motor Speech Coordination

Respiration, Phonation and Motor Speech Coordination

Respiration, Phonation and Motor Speech Coordination

Relevant section: 3:03


Although the video concerns stuttering rather than apraxia, it provides a useful demonstration of the interdependence of respiratory and phonatory processes during speech.


Key words: Motor speech, respiration, phonation, speech coordination, airflow, vocal tension, stuttering.


What it explains:
As available expiratory air diminishes, vocal effort and quality can change. It demonstrates why speech needs coordinated respiratory and laryngeal control.


Prosody, Pitch and Apraxia of Speech

Respiration, Phonation and Motor Speech Coordination

Speech Rate, Prosody and Intelligibility

The video provides an exaggerated demonstration of how rapidly the speech/voice system can alter pitch. This helps introduce the physiological mechanisms underlying pitch and intonation.


Key words: Apraxia, prosody, pitch, intonation, cricothyroid, vocal folds, motor speech, voice.


What it explains:
Large pitch changes involve alterations in vocal-fold tension, including activity of the cricothyroid muscle. In speech, much smaller and highly controlled pitch changes contribute to intonation and prosody

Speech Rate, Prosody and Intelligibility

Speech Rate, Prosody and Intelligibility

Speech Rate, Prosody and Intelligibility

Rate is particularly relevant to apraxia because altered rate and segmentation can be features of the disorder, while rate modification may also be incorporated into some therapeutic


This provides a useful contrast with the slow, segmented or disrupted speech that can occur in apraxia. It also demonstrates that changing rate influences much more than simply how quickly words are produced.


Key words: Apraxia of speech, speaking rate, articulation rate, prosody, intelligibility, motor speech, speech timing.

What it explains:
There is a relationship between rate, prosodic variation and intelligibility. As speech becomes extremely rapid, articulatory movements have less time to reach their targets and speech can become increasingly difficult to understand.

Extremely Fast Articulation

Speech Rate, Prosody and Intelligibility

Extremely Fast Articulation

This is an extreme demonstration of the speed at which the speech motor system can operate and provides a useful comparison with impaired speech motor planning.
Key words: Articulation rate, motor speech, speech motor control, intelligibility, syllables per second, apraxia, speech rate.
What it explains:
The example reportedly contains sections reaching approximately 22–24 syllables per second. It demonstrates the trade-off between articulatory speed and intelligibility and the extraordinary precision required for rapid sequential speech movements

Coarticulation

What is co-articulation?

What is co-articulation?

Normal speech does not involve producing one isolated sound, stopping and then producing the next. Speech movements overlap. The brain must organise sequences of articulatory movements so that speech repraxia of speech affects the planning/programming of movements required for speech. Coarticulation provides an important illustration of just how complicated this process is.
Key words: Apraxia of speech, childhood apraxia of speech, coarticulation, anticipatory coarticulation, speech motor planning, articulation, motor speech.
What they explain:
The articulators anticipate upcoming sounds while previous sounds are still being produced. This is known as anticipatory coarticulation.
For example, the position of the lips or tongue during one sound may already be influenced by a sound that occurs later in the word.
This helps explain why speech cannot simply be understood as a chain of separate phonemes. Fluent speech requires precisely planned and overlapping movements.

Guess the song

What is co-articulation?

Listener's often report that blending
words together sounds “slurred”—these videos
highlight the importance of coarticulation for
naturalness, especially anticipatory coarticulation
Also, see which sounds reverse well and which do
not (e.g., voiceless plosives).

Our Approach

Our Approach

We believe in a collaborative approach to therapy, working closely with families and other healthcare professionals to ensure the best outcomes for our clients. Our therapists are highly trained and passionate about helping individuals achieve their communication goals.

Resources

Contact Us

Our Approach

We have compiled a list of resources to provide our clients with additional support. From helpful articles to fun activities, our resources are designed to keep clients engaged and motivated throughout their therapy journey.

Contact Us

Contact Us

Contact Us

If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to help and look forward to hearing from you.

FAQ

Contact Us

Contact Us

We have compiled a list of frequently asked questions to provide our clients with additional information about our services. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Prosody Tutorials

This is a university-level introduction to Prosody, covering both fundamentals and applications, totaling 4 hours of videos across 29 lectures. This is a updated version of a tutorial presented at the 2021 Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Prosody: Models, Methods, and Applications

Prosody tutorials Nigel Ward

Services

We offer a range of speech and language therapy services, including assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for various speech disorders, language disorders, and communication difficulties. We also provide accent modification and voice therapy services.

Our Team

Testimonials

Our team of licensed and certified speech-language pathologists has extensive experience and training in the field of speech and language therapy. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality of care and support to our clients.

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

Hear what our clients have to say about our services and how we have helped them improve their communication skills and achieve their goals.

Resources

Testimonials

Contact Us

We provide a variety of resources and materials to support our clients' speech and language development, including articles, worksheets, and activities.

Contact Us

Testimonials

Contact Us

If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, please contact us. We would be happy to assist you.

Copyright © 2025 Speech Apraxia International. All rights reserved.

Speech Apraxia International participates in the Amazon Associates Programme and may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases or other promoted goods and services. This helps support our work.

Information on this page is for general education and guidance only and is not a substitute for individual professional, legal, clinical or educational advice.. SEND and EHCP information relates mainly to England; arrangements differ elsewhere in the UK and internationally. Support should always be based on the individual needs of the child or young person.

We aim to keep information accurate and current, but guidance, legislation and professional recommendations may change. Please check official sources or seek appropriate professional advice where needed.

External links are provided for information only and do not necessarily imply endorsement.

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept