The role of spinning and swinging in speech and language therapy

ByLondon Speech and Feeding August 7, 2024August 5, 2024

Autism Therapy | Speech and Language Therapy

Sonja with a child on a swinging with a stuffed monkey

Spinning and swinging are often observed behaviours in autistic children. While these actions might seem repetitive or unusual to some, they serve crucial functions for these children. Understanding the underlying reasons for spinning and swinging can provide valuable insights into how to support autistic children and incorporate these activities into therapeutic settings.

Why do children spin?

Spinning is a common sensory-seeking activity in autistic children. Sensory seeking means that the child actively looks for sensory input to regulate their nervous system. Here’s why spinning can be beneficial:

Vestibular input: Spinning stimulates the vestibular system, which is located in the inner ear and is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. For children with sensory processing difficulties, spinning can provide essential sensory input.
Calming effect: For some children, spinning can be a self-regulating strategy. The rhythmic motion can help to calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
Sensory exploration: Spinning allows children to explore their sensory experiences. It can help them understand their bodies and how they move in space.

The allure of swinging

The rhythmic back-and-forth motion of a swing offers several benefits:

Vestibular input: Like spinning, swinging stimulates the vestibular system, helping to improve balance and coordination.
Proprioceptive input: Swinging provides proprioceptive input, which is the sense of where your body is in space. This information is crucial for motor planning and coordination.
Calming and organising: The rhythmic motion of swinging can have a calming effect on the nervous system, helping to regulate emotions and improve focus.
Social interaction: Swinging can be a shared experience, fostering social interaction and communication.
Facilitating communication: While swinging, children are so much more relaxed and open to communication. The rhythmic motion can also help facilitate singing, humming, listening to my singing, non-verbal communication for sure but also more verbal and mouth words can be heard from children on my swing. If nothing else, it is so fun and helps build trust and rapport between my child and me.

Therapeutic Activities Combining Spinning, Swinging, and Speech and Language Therapy

Here are some therapeutic techniques that I use at London Speech and Feeding to combine movement with speech and language development:

Swinging with verbal prompts: While the child is swinging, I provide simple verbal prompts such as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘fast’, and ‘slow.’ This helps to develop receptive language skills and improve auditory processing.
Sensory-motor play: I like to combine swinging with tactile activities like playing with textured balls or bean bags. This can facilitate language development through descriptive language, words and scripts like: ‘that’s so soft’, ‘oooh tickle tickle tickle!’
Storytelling on the swing: Often I manage to create a story while the child is swinging. This can improve narrative skills, vocabulary, and imagination. Recently I did the ‘Tiger who came to tea’ story and each time the swing stopped the tiger came and ‘ate some more cakes’ and ‘tickled their tummy’ whilst eating. It may make not much sense but my child loved it and we had ‘more tiger eat more’.
Song and rhyme time: Often I sing the ‘rumble in the jungle’ song while swinging my child to enhance phonological awareness, rhythm, and timing.
Visual supports always help: I use LAMP Words for Life AAC support during swinging and show core words such as: ‘go’ / ‘stop’/ ‘more’ / ‘tickle tickle’ etc. #lampwordsforlife #aac
Movement-based activities: We can incorporate activities that require sequencing, such as imitating animal movements or following simple commands while swinging. This can improve motor planning and language comprehension.

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Sonja McGeachie

Early Intervention Speech and Language Therapist

Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice

The London Speech and Feeding Practice

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

Autism Therapy · Neurodiversity · Speech and Language Therapy

Speech Sound Challenges: A focus on /L/ and /Y/
ByLondon Speech and Feeding December 11, 2024December 10, 2024
Have you ever thought about how difficult it can be to produce certain speech sounds? Some sounds are definitely trickier than others. This is especially true for children with speech sound disorders like Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).

My student with CAS has been working hard on producing the /L/ sound especially when it was followed by an /O/ or /OO/ like, ‘log’ or ‘look’. We’ve practised lots and now that he’s got a good handle on /L/, he’s started replacing another difficult sound, /Y/, with it. So, ‘yes’ becomes ‘less’ and ‘yuck’ becomes ‘luck.’

This is a common pattern in speech development. Once a child masters a new sound, they may start using it in place of other sounds they find even more challenging.

Minimal Pair therapy

I use different evidence-based methods to help my students. And I often like to start out with phonemic awareness and then I move to contrasting the error sound with another sound to make completely different words. This approach is called ‘minimal pair’ therapy: both words are the same except for the initial/final sound which has the error sound, and this is contrasted with the correct sound.

Below is an example of this:

After we have worked on sound awareness, listening and becoming aware of small units of sound matter, then we can move to working on tongue placement and movement.

Tongue placement and movement to produce correct /L/ and /Y/ sounds

To produce these sounds correctly, the tongue needs to be in specific positions and make specific movements.
- /L/ sound:
  
  Tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge (the bony ridge behind your upper teeth)
  
  Sides of the tongue are raised to the sides of the upper teeth
  
  Airflow escapes through the sides of the tongue
- /Y/ sound:
  
  Tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge
  
  Sides of the tongue are raised to the sides of the upper teeth
  
  Airflow escapes through the centre of the mouth
I also use:
- Auditory bombardment: Auditory bombardment is a technique that involves repeatedly listening to a target sound. This can help children to develop a better understanding of the sound and how to produce it.
- Visual cues: Visual cues can be helpful for children who are having difficulty producing a particular sound. Here I use the image of a ‘standing tongue’ versus a ‘sitting tongue’.
- Physical cues: I use my hands to show a ‘standing tongue’ for the /L/ versus a ‘sitting tongue’ for the /Y/. But what worked even better and sadly I don’t have the video clip for it:
- Semantic cues: For example a picture of an ‘EAR’ to make the sound /Y/ so we shape the sound /EA/ to /Y/.
- Parent involvement: Parents play an important role in their child’s speech sound development by providing opportunities for them to practise their speech sounds at home. This can be done through activities such as reading books, singing songs, and playing games.
- Reinforcement: It is important to praise children for their efforts, even if they are not perfect. This will help them to feel motivated to keep practising. Important here for speech correction is concrete reinforcement: I feed back to my student what exactly they were doing correctly with their tongue or lips. Rather than saying ‘well done’, I mention what my student has just done with the tongue to change the sound: ‘I saw you lowered your tongue! That made a good /Y/’.
Another great way of reinforcing positively is to ask the student how they feel they have done? For the older ones I often ask them to self-rate their sound production out of 10. Then we can work towards the next incremental number upwards. This is very effective and gives the student control over their own work.

Please con tact me if your child has speech sound difficulties.

Sonja McGeachie

Early Intervention Speech and Language Therapist

Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice

The London Speech and Feeding Practice

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

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Lisp · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

From ‘Nailed it!’ in therapy to ‘Whoops!’ at home: Why generalising speech sounds is tricky
ByLondon Speech and Feeding July 23, 2025November 6, 2025
As a parent, you’ve likely experienced the triumphant feeling when your child, who’s been working so hard on his or her /S/ sound, produces it perfectly in a therapy session. He or she is rocking those ‘sun’ and ‘socks’ words, his or her lisp seemingly a distant memory. You leave feeling elated, confident that all that hard work is finally paying off.

Then you get home. And within minutes, you hear it: ‘Thooper!’ instead of ‘Super!’ Or maybe the clear /R/ in ‘rabbit’ from therapy reverts to a ‘wabbit’ when his or she is playing with his or her toys. It’s frustrating, confusing, and can feel like you’re back to square one.

So, what’s going on? Why is it so difficult for children to take those amazing skills learned in a focused therapy session and seamlessly apply them to their everyday conversations? You’re not alone in wondering this. It’s a common challenge in speech therapy and understanding the ‘why’ can help both parents and children navigate this crucial stage.

The brain’s habits: Old pathways are strong pathways

Think of your child’s brain as having established ‘pathways’ for how he or she produces certain sounds. If he or she has been lisping his or her /S/ sound for years, that neural pathway is deeply ingrained. It’s like a well-worn path through a field: easy to follow because it’s always been there.

In therapy, we’re essentially trying to forge a new path. We’re teaching him or her a new, more accurate way to make the sound. This new path is initially faint, like a barely visible trail. It takes conscious effort and repeated practice to strengthen it. Outside of the structured therapy environment, his or her brain often defaults to the old, comfortable, and well-established pathway, even if it’s not the most accurate.

The demands of daily conversation: A multitasking challenge

Therapy sessions are designed to be focused and controlled. We isolate sounds, practice them in specific words, and provide immediate feedback. There are minimal distractions, and your child’s full attention is on his or her speech production.

Now, consider daily conversation:
- Speed: We speak much faster in natural conversation than we do during structured practice. There is less time to think about individual sounds.
- Cognitive load: Children are simultaneously thinking about what they want to say, understanding what others are saying, processing social cues, and managing their emotions. Adding the conscious effort of producing a new speech sound correctly on top of all that is a huge cognitive demand.
- Variety of contexts: In therapy, we might practise ‘sun’ and ‘socks’. In real life, the /S/ sound appears in countless words, in different positions within words, and alongside a vast array of other sounds. Each new word and phonetic context present a fresh challenge.
- Lack of immediate feedback: In therapy, the speech therapist is right there to provide instant correction and reinforcement. In a playground, during a family dinner, or while playing with friends, that immediate, consistent feedback isn’t present.
The role of automaticity: Making it second nature

The ultimate goal of speech therapy isn’t just correct sound production; it’s automaticity. This means producing the sound correctly without having to consciously think about it. It’s like learning to ride a bike. Initially, every pedal stroke and steering adjustment is deliberate. Eventually, it becomes second nature.

Generalisation is the process of moving from conscious, controlled production to unconscious, automatic production. This takes time, consistent practice, and exposure to a wide variety of real-life speaking situations.

How can we help? Bridging the gap

So, what can parents do to help their children bridge this gap between therapy success and everyday speech?
1. Be patient and positive: This is a marathon, not a sprint. Celebrate the small victories and avoid getting discouraged by setbacks. Your positive reinforcement is crucial.
2. Practise little and often: Instead of long, infrequent practice sessions, aim for short, consistent bursts throughout the day. ‘Sprinkle’ in opportunities to practise their target sounds in natural conversations.
3. Create ‘sound awareness’ moments: Gently draw your child’s attention to his or her target sounds in everyday words. For example, if he or she is working on /R/, you might say, ‘Oh, you said ‘wabbit.’ Can you try to make your /RRR/ sound for ‘rabbit’?’
4. Model correct production: Continue to model the correct production of their target sounds in your own speech.
5. Collaborate with your speech therapist: Your therapist is your best resource! Ask them for specific strategies and activities you can do at home to support generalisation. They can also provide guidance on when and how to gently correct your child.
Tips and tricks

Below I have listed a few good tips and tricks that can help the transition from therapy room to daily life:

Empowering your child as the ‘sound detective’:
- ‘Secret sound listener’: Instead of you doing the correcting, make your child the detective. When you’re having a conversation, say ‘your /S/ sounds are sometimes a bit “slippery”’ (or whatever fun, non-judgmental term you like). Ask your child to quietly listen for your /S/ sounds. You can even purposely make a few ‘slippery’ ones (or correct yourself immediately after) and see if they notice. This shifts the focus from being corrected to actively listening and identifying the sound in a non-threatening way.
- ‘Sound scorecard’: For a short period (maybe 10–15 minutes during a specific activity, like dinner or a game), provide a small notepad and pencil. Explain that your child is going to listen for his or her /S/ sounds and gently mark a tally every time he or she uses it correctly. The goal isn’t perfection, but awareness. This gives your child agency and a visual representation of progress. You can even make it a game: ‘Let’s see how many /S/ sounds we can catch in five minutes!’
- /S/ sound song/rhyme creation: Work together to create silly songs or rhymes that are packed with /S/ sounds. The sillier, the better! You can sing them in the car, while doing chores, etc.
- /S/ sound superpower: Frame the new sound skill as a ‘superpower’. ‘You’re getting so good at using your /S/ superpower! It’s going to help you speak so clearly and confidently.’
- Highlighting successes: Always go out of your way to acknowledge and praise successful /S/ productions in natural conversation. ‘I really understood you clearly when you said ”s_top”.’ or ‘That /S/ sound was perfect when you told me about the “s_tory”!’
Important considerations:
- Keep it low-pressure: The goal is generalisation, not perfection. If your child is feeling pressured, he or she will likely revert to old patterns.
- Focus on awareness, not just correction: Help your child become aware of his or her own speech rather than relying on you for corrections.
- Short, frequent bursts: A few minutes of subtle focus multiple times a day is more effective than one long, forced session.
- Acknowledge feelings: If your child expresses frustration about ‘being corrected’, validate these feelings. ‘I understand it can feel like a lot of listening, but we’re just trying to help you use that super /S/ sound all the time!’
By incorporating these strategies, you can help your child naturally integrate the new /S/ sound into daily speech, fostering independence and confidence without it feeling like constant ‘testing’ or ‘correction’. Generalising new speech sounds is arguably the hardest part of speech therapy, but it’s also the most rewarding. With patience, consistent effort, and a collaborative approach between parents and therapists, children can successfully integrate their new, clearer speech sounds into every aspect of their daily lives.

Any comments or if you need help and support with your child’s speech please do not hesitate to get in touch with me: simply fill out the contact form here on the website. I endeavour to reply within 48 hours.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

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Autism Therapy · Neurodiversity · Printables · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

Let’s ditch the ‘Fix-It’ approach to autistic play and stimming
ByLondon Speech and Feeding December 8, 2025December 8, 2025
December is often presented as a time of perfect, reciprocal play. Children are supposed to be unwrapping toys, sharing, and engaging in imaginative scenarios with family. But for parents of young autistic children, this high-pressure, socially demanding period can often feel like a battleground.

If you’ve been told to interrupt your child’s stimming, push for eye contact, or force them to play ‘functionally’ with toys, it’s time to take a deep breath. Those traditional approaches are not only stressful—they often miss the point of your child’s communication.

As a neurodiversity-affirming Speech and Language Therapist, I want to encourage you this December: You are allowed to follow your child’s lead, validate his or her unique interests, and trust that his or her play and movement are profoundly meaningful.

1. Stimming: not a distraction, but a regulator 💡

Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behaviour and includes repetitive movements or sounds like hand flapping, humming, rocking, finger flicking, or repeating phrases (called echolalia).

For years, parents were incorrectly advised to block or eliminate these behaviours. The neurodiversity-affirming view tells us the exact opposite: Stimming is a vital and essential tool for your child’s self-regulation.

Think of stimming as an internal volume dial:
- Too loud/overwhelmed: Your child may stim to reduce incoming sensory input (e.g., rocking to ground himself or herself in a busy room).
- Too quiet/under-stimulated: Your child may stim to increase sensory input and focus (e.g., running back and forth to maintain alertness).
The shift: validate, don’t block

Instead of saying, ‘Stop flapping your hands’, try to understand the message behind the movement.
- Observe: When does the stimming happen? Is it before a meltdown? When your child excited? When your child is bored?
- Validate: Name the need, not just the behaviour. You might say, ‘I see your body needs to move fast right now. That helps you calm down!’
- Co-regulate: If the stim is unsafe (e.g., head-banging), help your child find a safer, alternative stim that meets the same sensory need (e.g., pushing hard against a wall, squeezing a stress ball).
By validating your child’s need to regulate, you are building trust, reducing anxiety, and teaching him or her critical self-awareness.

2. Autistic play: Meaningful, even if it’s monologue

The traditional idea of ‘good play’ often involves turn-taking, pretending, and specific toy functions (e.g., pushing a train around a track). When an autistic child spends 30 minutes lining up cars, spinning their wheels, or scripting whole scenes from a favourite movie, it can often be dismissed as non-functional or repetitive.

In neurodiversity-affirming practice, we recognise that autistic play is authentic play. These activities are crucial for learning, deep focus, and imaginative development.
- Lining up toys may be an exploration of patterns, visual organisation, and order.
- Spinning wheels may be a deep interest in cause-and-effect and visual sensory input.
- Scripting is often a way to process language, regulate emotions, and practise complex social situations in a safe, controlled way.
Make a change: Join your child’s world, don’t drag them to yours.

Stop trying to force the ‘right’ way to play. Instead, try these neuro-affirming strategies:
1. Be a co-regulator, not a director: If your child is lining up cars, sit down next to him or her. Instead of moving a car, try handing him or her another car to line up. Focus on the shared interest rather than forcing interaction.
2. Narrate (don’t question): Avoid constantly asking, ‘What are you doing?’ or ‘What does this car say?’ This puts pressure on your child to perform. Instead, narrate your observations using his or her interest: ‘I see you made a long, straight line of red cars. Look at all the wheels spinning!’
3. Validate the interest: Show genuine appreciation for your child’s focus. ‘Wow, you know so much about how magnets stick together! That’s incredible.’
3. The communication revolution: Honouring gestalt language processing

Many young autistic children communicate in ways that don’t fit the traditional model of building language word-by-word. Many use Gestalt Language Processing (GLP).

A gestalt language processor learns language in chunks or scripts (e.g., ‘what’s-in-there?’ or ‘ready-go!’). These chunks (or gestalts) are not random; they are often tied to an emotional memory or meaning. Over time, the child breaks down these big chunks into individual words then learns to recombine those words creatively.

If your child repeats movie phrases or whole sentences that seem unrelated, he or she is likely a gestalt language processor!

Affirm the script, then model something useful.
1. Affirm the script: When your child says a script, respond to the meaning or emotion behind it, not the literal words. If he or she says, ‘We’re going to need a bigger boat’, and he or she is looking at a messy toy pile, he or she may be trying to express overwhelm or a need for help. You can affirm: ‘That pile is too big! I can help you move it.’
2. Model new ‘mix and match’ scripts: To help your child move from whole scripts to single words, you can model shorter, slightly changed versions of the script, also called ‘mitigated gestalts’. If they say, ‘I want to go home now’, you might model, ‘Let’s go home, now’ or ‘I wanna go home’.
By honouring your child’s communication style, you validate his or her experience and naturally support his or her path to language development—a core part of neurodiversity-affirming SLT.

Your December gift to your little one:

This December, stop trying to make your child fit into a neurotypical box. Instead, make your home a safe space where he or she can be his or her authentic selves.

Prioritise regulation and connection over compliance.

Trust that when your child is regulated, his or her communication, learning, and engagement will flourish naturally. This is the true gift of neurodiversity-affirming practice.

Download and print my neuro-affirming quick reference guide and keep this guide handy on your fridge and/or in your child’s play area for a quick reminder to prioritise connection over conformity.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

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Neurodiversity · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

Why auditory memory matters (especially for little ones!)
ByLondon Speech and Feeding August 4, 2025August 1, 2025
Have you ever stopped to think about how we learn to speak, understand, and communicate effectively? It’s a complex dance of various cognitive skills, and one often overlooked but absolutely crucial player in this orchestra is auditory memory. It’s not just about remembering sounds. It’s about remembering sequences of sounds, which is fundamental to language development.

What exactly is auditory memory?

At its core, auditory memory is our ability to take in, process, store, and recall information that we hear. Think of it as your brain’s internal recording studio. When someone speaks to you, your auditory memory is busy at work, capturing the individual sounds, the order in which they appear, and the rhythm and intonation of the words. This isn’t just for long-term recall; it’s also vital for working auditory memory, which allows us to hold onto a small amount of auditory information for a short period, just long enough to make sense of it.

For speech and language, auditory memory is essential for:
- Understanding spoken language: To comprehend a sentence, we need to remember the beginning of the sentence by the time we hear the end.
- Following instructions: Remembering a sequence of commands relies heavily on auditory memory.
- Learning new words: We hear a word, remember its sound, and connect it to its meaning.
- Developing phonological awareness: This is the ability to recognise and manipulate the sounds in spoken language, a critical precursor to reading. Auditory memory helps children distinguish between similar-sounding words (e.g., ‘cat’ vs. ‘bat’) and segment words into individual sounds.
- Producing clear speech: To articulate words correctly, we need to recall the precise sequence of sounds that make up that word.
- Developing conversational skills: Remembering what was just said helps us formulate appropriate responses.
When auditory memory falls short: The impact on speech

When auditory memory is poor, particularly in young children, the ripple effects on speech and language development can be significant. Children might struggle with:
- Following multi-step directions: ‘Put on your shoes, get your coat, and meet me at the door’ can become an overwhelming jumble of sounds.
- Learning new vocabulary: They might hear a new word repeatedly but struggle to retain its sound pattern, making it difficult to recognise or use later.
- Understanding stories or conversations: Missing key details or losing the thread of a narrative because they can’t hold enough information in their working memory.
- Developing phonological skills: Difficulty with rhyming, identifying initial sounds in words, or blending sounds together to form words, which can impact early literacy.
- Speech production: They might mispronounce words, omit sounds, or struggle with the correct sequencing of sounds within words.
- Social communication: Difficulty participating in group discussions, remembering names, or recalling what their peers have said.
- Academic performance: Auditory memory challenges can impact a child’s ability to learn in a classroom setting, where much of the instruction is delivered verbally.
It’s important to note that poor auditory memory isn’t a sign of low intelligence, but rather a specific processing challenge that can be addressed with targeted support.

Nurturing auditory memory in under 5s: Preparing for schooling

The good news is that auditory memory is a skill that can be strengthened and developed, especially during the crucial early years. For children under five, laying a strong foundation in auditory memory is an invaluable gift as they prepare for the demands of formal schooling. Here’s what we can do to help:
1. Read aloud regularly: This is perhaps one of the most powerful tools. As you read, encourage your child to listen for specific words, predict what happens next, and retell parts of the story. Vary your voice, use different intonations, and pause to emphasise key words.
2. Play auditory memory games:
  
  ‘Simon says’: This classic game is fantastic for following multi-step instructions. Start with one command and gradually increase the number.
  
  ‘I Spy’ with sounds: Instead of colours, describe sounds. ‘I spy with my little ear something that goes “moo”.’
  
  Rhyming games: Sing rhyming songs, read rhyming books, and encourage your child to come up with words that rhyme.
  
  Sound matching: Use everyday objects to make sounds (e.g., shaking keys, tapping a spoon) and have your child identify or match them.
  
  ‘Memory chain’: Start a sentence and have your child add to it, remembering everything that came before: ‘I went to the market and bought an apple.’ ‘I went to the market and bought an apple and a banana.’
3. Sing songs and nursery rhymes: Repetitive songs and nursery rhymes are excellent for developing auditory memory, rhythm, and phonological awareness. The predictable patterns help children anticipate and remember sequences of sounds and words.
4. Give multi-step instructions (and praise!): Start with two-step instructions and gradually increase the complexity as your child’s skills improve. Always give positive reinforcement when they succeed. ‘Please pick up the red block and put it in the box.’
5. Engage in active listening: Model good listening skills yourself. When your child is speaking, give them your full attention. Ask clarifying questions to encourage them to elaborate and organise their thoughts.
6. Reduce background noise: A quiet environment makes it easier for young children to focus on auditory information. Minimise distractions like TV or loud music during activities that require listening.
7. Use visual cues: While we’re focusing on auditory memory, sometimes pairing auditory information with visual cues can be helpful, especially initially. For example, when giving instructions, demonstrate the action as you say it.
8. Be patient and consistent: Developing auditory memory takes time and consistent practice. Celebrate small victories and create a playful, supportive environment for learning.
By actively engaging in these strategies, we can empower our youngest learners to build robust auditory memory skills, setting them up for success not only in speech and language development but also in their overall academic journey. It’s an investment that truly pays dividends in their future communication and learning abilities.

Any comments or if you need help and support with your child’s speech please do not hesitate to get in touch with me: simply fill out the contact form here on the website. I endeavour to reply within 48 hours.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

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Ages and Stages · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Signs and first steps (2–5 years)
ByLondon Speech and Feeding February 9, 2026February 6, 2026
If you’ve found yourself wondering ‘Why can my child say a word one day, but not at all the next?’ it might be that your child has a motor speech difficulty. This means the challenge isn’t that your child doesn’t know what they want to say; it’s that their brain finds it harder to plan and coordinate the movements needed for clear speech. This speech difficulty is called Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

In this post, I’ll explain what CAS can look like in 2–5 year olds, what an assessment usually involves, and what you can start doing at home to support your child without turning life into ‘speech homework all day long’.

What is childhood apraxia of speech (CAS)?

Children with CAS often have lots to communicate about (and strong ideas!) but their speech may come out as:
- Unclear
- inconsistent
- hard to ‘copy’ on demand
- frustrating for them and for you
CAS is not caused by laziness and it is not a parenting issue. It is also not something children simply ‘grow out of’ without support. But with the right therapy approach, children can absolutely build clearer speech over time.

If you’d like to read more about verbal dyspraxia, you may also find this helpful: Supporting children and families living with verbal dyspraxia.

Why is CAS such a big topic right now?

Many families come to me after months (or years) of being told:
- ‘She’ll talk when she is ready’
- ‘He’s just shy’
- ‘It’s probably a speech delay’
- ‘It’s normal for toddlers’
And sometimes it is a general delay. But sometimes it’s something more specific, like CAS.

There’s also been a huge rise in parents seeking information online, and CAS is often mentioned alongside speech sound difficulties such as:
- phonological delay (pattern-based speech errors)
- articulation difficulties (one sound that won’t come out clearly)
- inconsistent speech disorder
These can look similar at first glance, which is why a specialist assessment matters.

Signs of childhood apraxia of speech in 2–5 year olds

Children develop speech at different rates, and not every unclear speaker has CAS. But here are some common features that may raise a flag, especially when you notice several together.

1) Inconsistent speech errors

Your child might say the same word in different ways:
- ‘banana’ → nana / baba / mana
- ‘daddy’ → gaga / daddy / dadi
This inconsistency is one of the biggest clues.

2) Difficulty copying words on request

Some children speak more easily in natural play, but when asked ‘Say ___’, they freeze or the word becomes much harder.

3) Limited sound repertoire

They may use only a small set of consonants (like /M/, /N/, /B/, /D/) and avoid others.

4) Vowel distortions

Many children with typical delays mainly struggle with consonants. But in CAS, vowels can also sound ‘off’ or change between attempts.

5) Speech that sounds effortful

You might notice your child:
- pauses between sounds
- tries multiple times
- looks like they’re ‘searching’ for the right mouth movement
6) Longer words are much harder

‘Car’ might be easier than ‘carry’, and ‘carry’ easier than ‘caterpillar’.

7) Prosody differences (rhythm and stress)

Some children with CAS sound a little unusual in their speech rhythm, stress, or intonation.

8) Frustration or reduced confidence

When a child is frequently misunderstood, they may:
- talk less
- use gestures more
- become upset when asked to repeat themselves
Important note: none of these signs alone prove CAS but they are a strong reason to seek a speech assessment rather than waiting.

CAS vs phonological delay vs articulation difficulty (quick guide)

These are some of the most common questions I hear.

If it’s mainly an articulation difficulty…

A child may consistently say one sound incorrectly (for example, ‘thun’ for ‘sun’- lisp- but everything else is developing well.

If it’s mainly a phonological delay…

You might notice clear patterns, like:
- leaving off the ends of words (‘ca’ for ‘cat’)
- swapping back sounds for front sounds (‘tar’ for ‘car’)
Patterns are often consistent and respond well to phonology-based therapy.

If it might be CAS…

Speech often feels less predictable, harder to imitate, and more impacted by word length and complexity.

If you’re unsure, that’s completely normal, and exactly why assessment matters.

What happens in a CAS assessment?

A high-quality speech assessment for possible CAS usually includes:

1) Parent discussion and developmental history

We talk about:
- pregnancy and birth history (where relevant)
- feeding history
- early sounds and babbling
- first words and how speech has progressed
- family history of speech/language needs
2) A speech sound assessment

Your child might be shown pictures or play-based prompts so we can hear:
- what sounds they can say
- what they simplify
- whether errors are consistent or inconsistent
3) An oral-motor and movement check

This isn’t about ‘strength’. It’s about coordination and planning. We look at how your child manages speech movements and transitions.

4) Stimulability testing

This means: how easily can your child learn a new sound or word with support?

For CAS, we often explore how they respond to:
- slowed-down speech
- visual cues
- rhythm/tapping
- short, simple syllable shapes
5) Functional communication and confidence

We look at how speech impacts daily life:
- being understood at nursery
- joining in with peers
- asking for help
- managing emotions when misunderstood
At the end, you should leave with:
- a clear explanation of what we think is going on
- a therapy plan
- practical home strategies
- realistic next steps
What parents can do at home

Here are CAS-friendly strategies you can start right away.

1) Choose ‘power words’

Pick 1–2 words that matter most in your child’s daily life, such as:
- more
- help
- mummy
- again
- stop
- open
These words are motivating and functional.

2) Keep it short and successful

For many children with CAS, the goal is quality over quantity.

Try five minutes a day rather than 30 minutes of struggle.

3) Support speech with rhythm

Some children benefit from:
- tapping a beat on the table
- clapping syllables
- using a gentle ‘marching’ rhythm
This can help the brain organise the sequence of movements.

4) Celebrate approximations

If your child says ‘moh’ for ‘more’, that’s communication!

We want them to feel:
- safe
- understood
- proud to try again
Confidence is a key part of progress.

A short parent story (anonymised)

One mum said to me:

‘We kept being told to wait. But I could see my child understood everything; they just couldn’t get the words out. Once we had an assessment and a plan, it felt like we finally knew what to do. The biggest change was his confidence. He started trying more.’

When should you seek support?

You don’t need to wait until school.

It’s worth getting an assessment if your child is:
- hard to understand compared with peers
- becoming frustrated or withdrawing from talking
- inconsistent with words they used to say
- struggling to imitate speech sounds
- showing signs that match CAS
Early support can reduce stress for the whole family and help your child feel successful in communication.

Here’s how I can help:

✅ A detailed speech assessment (including whether CAS is likely)

✅ A clear therapy plan with realistic goals

✅ Practical home strategies you can use immediately

✅ Support for nurseries and schools (where needed)

✅ In-person sessions in North-West London and online options

Book your consultation here.

Final gentle reminder

You are not overreacting. Trust your instincts.

Your child is communicating the best way they can, and with the right support, speech can become easier, clearer, and more confident.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

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READ MORE Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Signs and first steps (2–5 years)
Speech and Language Therapy

Speech sound disorders
ByLondon Speech and Feeding September 21, 2021March 28, 2025
Speech Sound Disorders

Treatment Approaches – A Typical Session

There are various great ways to treat speech sound disorders and I use all the approaches available selectively; I decide what works with each individual child and I also vary the approach depending on the child’s frame of mind at any given time during my session.

Some of the approaches are more “drill-based” and require a child to be able to pay attention and really participate actively in the therapy, and this is what I am showing you today with this video clip.

My little student here has been working with me for some time and from only saying a handful of words which were not very easy to understand he has come a long way. He does have some features of Verbal Dyspraxia which I shall briefly outline here:
- Making sounds in general is a struggle, especially when asked to copy certain sounds, example: ‘can you say: a ee ou oo?”
- Repeating sound sequences or words sequences is hard, for example: “say p-t-k in sequence” or “say fish chips fish chips fish chips
- When saying the same word again and again, different mistakes can be heard
- Intonation difficulties: speech sounds monotonous
- Vocabulary is very limited
Some therapy approaches are more play based, for example the Core Word method: here we pick a few words at a time which are very significant to the child and therefore highly motivating to try and say. These could be characters of Pokemon or Minecraft for example, or simple words like “GO!”

When you watch the video you will see that I use a lot of visual prompting, such as showing him where the tongue is moving to or from. I do this with my index finger and this approach is called Tactile Cueing or “Cued Articulation”. Part of the approach is to give a visual prompt and then reduce the prompt as the learner is more able to produce the correct sounds. Once he can produce the sound on its own, we quickly move to the sound within a word.

I do mix and match my approaches and in fact here I am drilling but I also use the Core Word which for him (YELLOW) — it’s his favourite colour and I happen to have quite a few good games where a YELLOW something or other can be asked for….. WHO KNEW!? 🙂

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
READ MORE Speech sound disorders