Apraxia of Speech is a speech disorder that makes it difficult for children to correctly pronounce syllables and words. When a child struggles in saying the sounds, they simultaneously struggle with reading, writing and comprehending the sounds because they are all connected. So how does a child with apraxia of speech learn best? On today’s blog post I’m going to guide you on how you can give your child with apraxia of speech reading help.

Use a Multisensory Approach

Children with Apraxia of speech learn best by seeing it, saying it, moving with it and touching it. This is what we call multisensory. Multisensory teaching is an important aspect of instruction for the child with Apraxia of Speech and is used by most clinically trained therapists. Multisensory teaching uses all the senses to relay information to the child. The teacher accesses the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic pathways in order to enhance memory and learning. Links are consistently made between the visual (language we see), auditory (language we hear), and kinesthetic-tactile (language we feel) pathways in learning to read. For example, when learning the letter combination “ank” like in the word “bank” the child might first look at it and then have to trace the letters in the air while speaking out loud. This combination of listening, looking, and moving around creates a lasting impression for the child as things will connect to each other and become memorable.   

Would you like to see me teaching a sample multisensory lesson?  It is only 1 minute.  Click >HERE<

Use Orton-Gillingham

Kids with childhood apraxia of speech need a different approach in learning to read. They do very well with structure, routine and a lot of repetition when learning how to read and spell. They also need to be taught each reading and spelling skill explicitly and this needs to be taught in a small group or preferably one-on-one.  Every lesson the child learns needs to be in a structured and orderly fashion. The child is taught a skill and doesn’t progress to the next skill until the current lesson is mastered. As children learn new material, they continue to review old material until it is stored into the child’s long-term memory. While learning these skills, the child focuses on phonemic awareness. There are 181 phonemes or rules in Orton-Gillingham for students to learn. More advanced readers (middle school) will study the rules of English language, syllable patterns, and how to use roots, prefixes, and suffixes to study words. By teaching how to combine the individual letters or sounds and put them together to form words and how to break longer words into smaller pieces, kids with apraxia of speech get the reading help they need.

You can read more about Orton-Gillingham and how it works >Here<

If you are looking for an Orton-Gillingham program that is really easy to use, heavily scripted out and perfect for tutors, teachers and homeschooling parents, check out The PRIDE Reading Program.  

Use Phonemic Awareness


  1. Identify rhymes – “tell me all of the words you know that rhyme with the word “bat.”
  2. Listening for sounds.  “Close your eyes as I read some words to you.  When you hear the “f” sound, raise your hand.
  3. Manipulating sounds in words by adding, deleting or substituting, “in the word hat, change the h to b.” (bat)

In Summary

Apraxia of Speech reading help should include multisensory teaching approaches so that the child sees it, says it, hears it and moves with it.  It is also very important to use an Orton-Gillingham program that is structured, sequential, and cumulative.  Using a lot of phonemic awareness activities like rhyming, blending, substituting and manipulating sounds will benefit the child with apraxia of speech tremendously.

And while you are here… please check out The PRIDE Reading Program.  This is an Orton-Gillingham program that is heavily scripted out, easy to use, affordable and used by homeschooling parents, tutors and teachers with great success.  Let me know what you think.  

Thank you so much for reading my post today.




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