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Speaking of Apraxia: A Parent's Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological disorder where children are unable to articulate words that they want to say because they are unable form the necessary muscle movements to do so. This is probably the only book written for parents that gives a comprehensive discussion on the topic. Book covers the definition of CAS, treatments options, ways for families to cope with the disorder, ways to support a child with CAS at home, and resources for parents. Author shares her personal experience on parenting a child with CAS and the experiences of other parents. The book breaks down the technical/scientific information on this disorder so that it is understandable for parents.
450 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2012
19 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Leslie A. Lindsay
1 book87 followersOriginally from St. Louis, Leslie Lindsay is a mother, wife, and writer living in Chicago. She is the award-winning author of Speaking of Apraxia (Woodbine House, 2020), now in its 2nd edition.
Leslie's writing and photography have been featured in numerous literary journals in-print and online. She has been recognized by Jane Friedman as a 'highly influential' reviewer, and by GoodReads, a Top 1% reviewer. Leslie reviews debut and bestselling authors weekly, www.leslielindsay.com.
She is a former child/adolescent psychiatric R.N. at the Mayo Clinic. Her memoir is represented by Catalyst Literary Management.
Leslie's writing and photography have been featured in numerous literary journals in-print and online. She has been recognized by Jane Friedman as a 'highly influential' reviewer, and by GoodReads, a Top 1% reviewer. Leslie reviews debut and bestselling authors weekly, www.leslielindsay.com.
She is a former child/adolescent psychiatric R.N. at the Mayo Clinic. Her memoir is represented by Catalyst Literary Management.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 19, 2012
This the first-ever book on a complex neurologically-based motor speech disorder designed with parents in mind. My goal was to write a book that was down-to-earth, yet passionately able to share the the ups and downs of raising a child with childhood apraxia of speech. It was because of my own daughter that I wanted a book about this disorder. I wanted to understand it and I wanted to help my daughter be the best she can be. This book was as much a labor of love for her as it was for others out there also walking the path of apraxia. I can only hope that this book will touch the lives of others and help get the word out on apraxia.
April 16, 2012
Thank you for writing this book Leslie Lindsay! I just wish I had this book a year ago when my daughter was first diagnosed with apraxia. I also looked for information about this speech issue but couldn't find anything that wasn't a bunch of SLP lingo (ha!). But this is a book I can relate to! Very thorough..I hate to say it, but it almost reads like it should be titled "Childhood Apraxia of Speech for Dummies". It covers everything about this speech issue (well as much as can be covered given all the unknowns about it), but does so in a sympathetic and readable style. The author gives us some of the insights she's gathered dealing with her own childs apraxia. Highly recommended. If this book wasn't such a good resource, I'd give it to my daughter's SLP. Maybe I'll just show it to her and tell her that its a great book for other parents.
August 12, 2012
Leslie Lindsay is a brilliant mother turned author. She didn't find the handbook or guide that she needed when navigating the road of Childhood Apraxia of Speech, so she made it her mission to create one. Bravo Mrs. Lindsay for hitting the mark!
As a mother of a young son with CAS, I enjoyed reading this book...cover to cover in less than 24 hours. Of course, I am a quick reader and Apraxia is not new to me. So, don't think that it is a thin book, not at all. Speaking of Apraxia is filled with just about every aspect that needs to be covered when taking on the beast of Apraxia of Speech.
I do believe that mothers and fathers that are just finding themselves on this journey will be able to immerse themselves in this guide. They will find help for their children, themselves and their families with this handbook.
It is definitely a book that I would recommend to any family that is faced with the unknown of Apraxia and one that will hold a special place on my bookshelf.
Cheers to small talk!!!
Mary Clare Tarpley, EdS
www.maggieandluke.blogspot.com
www.unlockinglukesvoice.com
As a mother of a young son with CAS, I enjoyed reading this book...cover to cover in less than 24 hours. Of course, I am a quick reader and Apraxia is not new to me. So, don't think that it is a thin book, not at all. Speaking of Apraxia is filled with just about every aspect that needs to be covered when taking on the beast of Apraxia of Speech.
I do believe that mothers and fathers that are just finding themselves on this journey will be able to immerse themselves in this guide. They will find help for their children, themselves and their families with this handbook.
It is definitely a book that I would recommend to any family that is faced with the unknown of Apraxia and one that will hold a special place on my bookshelf.
Cheers to small talk!!!
Mary Clare Tarpley, EdS
www.maggieandluke.blogspot.com
www.unlockinglukesvoice.com
May 24, 2013
I found out about this book on Goodreads and purchased it on Amazon. So far I think this book is great. For anyone that has a child or grandchild with CAS you should get this book. I discovered some things that I had no idea were also symptoms of apraxia. As I read the book I can relate to so many situations happy and sad about apraxia in regards to my 3 year old grandson. Being very involved in his speech therapy and trying to think of different "games"to play and motivators it is rewarding to read the book and find out that I'm on the right track. The author explains things in an easy to understand manner. There are resources listed for websites and books for further information. It is definitely worth the money.
August 12, 2016
I wish I had found this book when we first started with Sarah. The entire process is broken down into simple steps. I did hope there would be a little more about the odd little things that can accompany CAS, but she touched on them enough for me to know these aren't my imagination. I most certainly would not hesitate to recommend this to a parent who is in the beginning stages with a child.
April 19, 2012
Great book. Well worth the $20 if you have a child with apraxia!
February 20, 2023
I’ll start with some context that I’m coming to this book pretty late in the game, which seems to be later than Lindsay’s target audience. My son has CAS, and he started speech therapy shortly after he turned 2 and is 5 now, and I’d estimate we have awhile to go. Early on I felt relieved that he qualified for services. His father was in speech therapy (for a different disorder) throughout elementary school and ‘turned out fine,’ so I wasn’t too worried. Unlike the book suggests, CAS has not been my whole life or a cause of great anguish. Only now that my son has gotten older has some grief started to emerge. Many small children are hard to understand, so his speech disorder wasn’t as noticeable. At five, it’s very noticeable to others and is starting to impact the way others treat him. Additionally, I’m concerned about if and how much he may struggle with learning how to read. I chose this particular book because it was recommended on the Apraxia Kids website and seemed the most up-to-date and evidence-based CAS-specific book.
I loved the first two chapters of this book covering the science of CAS and speech development as well as the later section on learning to read, which was the information I was primarily interested in. (I was surprised there wasn’t actually a list of actual CAS symptoms anywhere in the book. There was a list of warning signs on pp. 6–7.) The book went downhill from there. While there are some helpful nuggets here and there, the glaring issues I will detail below made it hard to glean much value.
My general issues with the book:
Lindsay is a stay-at-home mom residing in a very affluent Chicago suburb, and it shows. Her personal story and suggested action steps are very privileged. The experts and other ‘CAS parents’ she consults are largely from the same affluent area, bringing along the same biases. Additionally, Lindsay’s oldest daughter started speech therapy at age 2.5 and graduated at age 5, and her youngest (only mentioned approximately twice in the book) graduated speech therapy at age 27 months (p. 34). Lindsay has no experience parenting an elementary-aged child with active CAS, which is one of the many reasons I found her personal story to be a poor example of what one might expect. Her oldest daughter was later diagnosed with ADHD, so she talks more from that perspective, perhaps overestimating the co-occurrence of CAS and ADHD.
Lindsay’s attitude: Special ed is something to be ashamed of.
I get that everyone reacts differently to news that their child isn’t developing normally, but I couldn’t help but be insulted by Lindsay’s initial reaction to her daughter’s speech delay (p. 53; 391). Having a kid that might need special ed was literally the worst thing she could imagine. Her whole view of CAS treatment is based on this ableist idea that surfaces throughout the book.
Lindsay’s attitude: Public services are bad. Private speech therapy is essential.
Lindsay spends just a small segment of her 400-page book talking about public services, filled with warnings that public services are inferior to private options. Early Intervention (pp. 44–47) is just four pages out of a sizeable chapter (pp. 31–64) on pursuing a diagnosis. One of those four pages (p. 47) was about the disadvantages of EI services. I would expect a listing of the pros/cons of various treatment approaches, but she has no such list of disadvantages for private services. Lindsay does have a chapter on school (pp. 213–259), with some information about public school. Lindsay details providing the teachers a CAS information packet and requesting a daily report/worksheet detailing what your child did at school (pp. 228–229).
The rest of the book only acknowledges private speech therapy. Lindsay advocates going to private speech therapy as many times a week as possible (pp. 113–116) and quitting your job to make that happen (p. 299). One should also consider paying for pricey special therapies, such as hippotherapy, often not covered by insurance (pp. 138–147, 317–318). If your child gets speech therapy at school, Lindsay emphasizes that your child should still go to private therapy because public school therapy can’t possibly be enough (p. 115, 234). (To be clear, this is an area I’m quite privileged in that my son has access to a great special ed program through the public school system. Perhaps Lindsay could shift her message to advocacy, which to be fair, does have its own cost, rather than immediately jumping to expensive private options.)
Lindsay’s attitude: Forego all other activities until your child is ‘normal.’
Lindsay advocates foregoing all other activities to provide as much therapy time as possible (p. 113–116). She talks about the importance of converting/remodeling a rarely used room into a speech therapy playroom (p. 202), so you can squeeze in more speech practice. (Because we all have spare rooms just sitting empty!?) In the chapter about CAS resolving, Lindsay declares that you can now sign your child up for soccer practice and allow them to attend a birthday party because your child can talk (p. 339). Essentially, your life is supposed to be about speech therapy to make your child ‘normal’ as fast as possible. Only then can they ‘just be a kid’ and engage in other activities. It’s so ableist. Yes, I want my child to be able to communicate at age level, but I don’t think it’s in a child’s best interest to only focus on reaching that goal as quickly as possible at the expense of everything else.
I loved the first two chapters of this book covering the science of CAS and speech development as well as the later section on learning to read, which was the information I was primarily interested in. (I was surprised there wasn’t actually a list of actual CAS symptoms anywhere in the book. There was a list of warning signs on pp. 6–7.) The book went downhill from there. While there are some helpful nuggets here and there, the glaring issues I will detail below made it hard to glean much value.
My general issues with the book:
Lindsay is a stay-at-home mom residing in a very affluent Chicago suburb, and it shows. Her personal story and suggested action steps are very privileged. The experts and other ‘CAS parents’ she consults are largely from the same affluent area, bringing along the same biases. Additionally, Lindsay’s oldest daughter started speech therapy at age 2.5 and graduated at age 5, and her youngest (only mentioned approximately twice in the book) graduated speech therapy at age 27 months (p. 34). Lindsay has no experience parenting an elementary-aged child with active CAS, which is one of the many reasons I found her personal story to be a poor example of what one might expect. Her oldest daughter was later diagnosed with ADHD, so she talks more from that perspective, perhaps overestimating the co-occurrence of CAS and ADHD.
Lindsay’s attitude: Special ed is something to be ashamed of.
I get that everyone reacts differently to news that their child isn’t developing normally, but I couldn’t help but be insulted by Lindsay’s initial reaction to her daughter’s speech delay (p. 53; 391). Having a kid that might need special ed was literally the worst thing she could imagine. Her whole view of CAS treatment is based on this ableist idea that surfaces throughout the book.
Lindsay’s attitude: Public services are bad. Private speech therapy is essential.
Lindsay spends just a small segment of her 400-page book talking about public services, filled with warnings that public services are inferior to private options. Early Intervention (pp. 44–47) is just four pages out of a sizeable chapter (pp. 31–64) on pursuing a diagnosis. One of those four pages (p. 47) was about the disadvantages of EI services. I would expect a listing of the pros/cons of various treatment approaches, but she has no such list of disadvantages for private services. Lindsay does have a chapter on school (pp. 213–259), with some information about public school. Lindsay details providing the teachers a CAS information packet and requesting a daily report/worksheet detailing what your child did at school (pp. 228–229).
The rest of the book only acknowledges private speech therapy. Lindsay advocates going to private speech therapy as many times a week as possible (pp. 113–116) and quitting your job to make that happen (p. 299). One should also consider paying for pricey special therapies, such as hippotherapy, often not covered by insurance (pp. 138–147, 317–318). If your child gets speech therapy at school, Lindsay emphasizes that your child should still go to private therapy because public school therapy can’t possibly be enough (p. 115, 234). (To be clear, this is an area I’m quite privileged in that my son has access to a great special ed program through the public school system. Perhaps Lindsay could shift her message to advocacy, which to be fair, does have its own cost, rather than immediately jumping to expensive private options.)
Lindsay’s attitude: Forego all other activities until your child is ‘normal.’
Lindsay advocates foregoing all other activities to provide as much therapy time as possible (p. 113–116). She talks about the importance of converting/remodeling a rarely used room into a speech therapy playroom (p. 202), so you can squeeze in more speech practice. (Because we all have spare rooms just sitting empty!?) In the chapter about CAS resolving, Lindsay declares that you can now sign your child up for soccer practice and allow them to attend a birthday party because your child can talk (p. 339). Essentially, your life is supposed to be about speech therapy to make your child ‘normal’ as fast as possible. Only then can they ‘just be a kid’ and engage in other activities. It’s so ableist. Yes, I want my child to be able to communicate at age level, but I don’t think it’s in a child’s best interest to only focus on reaching that goal as quickly as possible at the expense of everything else.
March 27, 2024
This book has helped answer so many questions that I had when my son got diagnosed with CAS. It talks from the moment you suspect CAS to what to expect with therapy to the future for your child. It even touches on the parents point of view and how to cope with the diagnosis. Loved this!
I do wish that there was a physical copy of this instead of the audiobook although I did purchase a used copy of the first version and I’ll be using it to refer back to anything in particular.
I do wish that there was a physical copy of this instead of the audiobook although I did purchase a used copy of the first version and I’ll be using it to refer back to anything in particular.
September 17, 2024
An unbelievably comprehensive, thorough book with both emphasis on evidence based techniques and anecdotes. I really loved how personal yet universal the advice provided was.
I do want to critique that the gendered stereotypes in the book were a bit tough to overlook. But nonetheless, an overall great read for anyone who works or cares for someone with CAS.
I do want to critique that the gendered stereotypes in the book were a bit tough to overlook. But nonetheless, an overall great read for anyone who works or cares for someone with CAS.
February 24, 2020
This book is the go to guide for parents and professionals to better understand and help individuals diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech. You will get a clear picture of how it is diagnosed and treatment options to support a child with this diagnosis.
June 15, 2012
I am a speech-language pathologist. I have only worked as an SLP for 5 years, so there are still many things for me to learn. I have worked with a couple of children with apraxia, most recently a kindergartener. Working with this client prompted me to find more information about apraxia and led me to this book at my local library.
This book is an excellent resource for parents of children with apraxia of speech. I learned a few things from this wonderful mother/author and I know that anyone interested in learning about apraxia of speech will learn something as well.
This book is broken up nicely into five sections and then further into 2-4 chapters within each section. Her titles to the sections and chapters are straight and to the point, the reader knows exactly what they're going to be reading about. Ms. Lindsay's writing style is also very "real". She writes like she's talking to a friend which I think would appeal to all levels of readers picking up this book. While her language can be relaxed, the reader can also tell that Ms. Lindsay has done her research about everything having to do with therapy for apraxia of speech. She also has included many anecdotal accounts from her experiences and others who have children who have apraxia of speech or have had it in the past. She uses great lists, charts, and boxes throughout the book to add visual emphasis to her information and break up the pages nicely.
Each chapter has a brief introduction as well as a bullet list of main points for the chapter. At the end of every chapter is a section called "Say That Again?! Chapter Summary" as well as "Read On! Recommended Resources" which has great lists of books and websites for further information about some things that were presented. If you have a child with apraxia of speech or are a professional working with children who have apraxia, I think just having those resources is worth the purchase of the book. I love lists of resources for additional information.
Overall, I found this book to be an invaluable resource for anyone who knows a child with apraxia of speech. There are not many book resources out there for the average person and this one is, in my opinion, very thorough with its information. I will be purchasing it to keep in my office for parents who bring their children to me.
This book is an excellent resource for parents of children with apraxia of speech. I learned a few things from this wonderful mother/author and I know that anyone interested in learning about apraxia of speech will learn something as well.
This book is broken up nicely into five sections and then further into 2-4 chapters within each section. Her titles to the sections and chapters are straight and to the point, the reader knows exactly what they're going to be reading about. Ms. Lindsay's writing style is also very "real". She writes like she's talking to a friend which I think would appeal to all levels of readers picking up this book. While her language can be relaxed, the reader can also tell that Ms. Lindsay has done her research about everything having to do with therapy for apraxia of speech. She also has included many anecdotal accounts from her experiences and others who have children who have apraxia of speech or have had it in the past. She uses great lists, charts, and boxes throughout the book to add visual emphasis to her information and break up the pages nicely.
Each chapter has a brief introduction as well as a bullet list of main points for the chapter. At the end of every chapter is a section called "Say That Again?! Chapter Summary" as well as "Read On! Recommended Resources" which has great lists of books and websites for further information about some things that were presented. If you have a child with apraxia of speech or are a professional working with children who have apraxia, I think just having those resources is worth the purchase of the book. I love lists of resources for additional information.
Overall, I found this book to be an invaluable resource for anyone who knows a child with apraxia of speech. There are not many book resources out there for the average person and this one is, in my opinion, very thorough with its information. I will be purchasing it to keep in my office for parents who bring their children to me.
August 23, 2012
I think that this book is really informative, can give the information straight to parents, and differentiates the difference between myths and evidence based practices. However, I found that a lot of the suggestions were overwhelming, especially financially. At one point, the author suggests going out and buying a trampoline. Because of that, I worry about suggesting this books to parents (along with the fact that it's so long, that can be overwhelming in itself!). I may take incepts from this book to share with parents, or suggest some similar activities. As and ECSE teacher, I didn't find any of the information to be revolutionary in how I will change my practice in working with kids with CAS.
August 24, 2014
A fantastic resource!! I have learned so much from this book - I am ever so grateful to Leslie Lindsay for writing it. This really helps give insight into the world of apraxia -- which until recently, I didn't even knew existed.
September 19, 2012
Excellent big picture of apraxia. It listed things it took me years to discover on my own. I passed this reference around at school and in family.
December 1, 2012
Good resource for parents, first half informative for professionals of the non-SLP variety like myself who suddenly have 4 kids with apraxia one year.
February 27, 2013
This is a must read if you are the parent of a child with CAS!
January 31, 2015
Best book I've read about apraxia. Covers everything from finding a therapist to selecting a school.
June 6, 2015
It was a great read in some parts of the beginning, but I gradually felt like this book is better help in the beginning of my son's diagnosis or when he starts school in a year.
October 30, 2016
A great resource and easy to read. Thank you!
December 4, 2016
Excellent ideas and gives an understanding of the diagnosis to plan for therapy.
Want to read
April 30, 2018I'm reading this book because our youngest has CAS
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews