Children with motor speech difficulties have difficulty with the planning, programming, coordinating and execution of speech. A child with a motor speech difficulties likely knows what he/she wants to say but has difficulty coordinating his or her mouth muscles.

One specific motor speech disorder is called Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). With CAS, children do not follow typical speech patterns and require treatment to make progress with their speech. Some signs of CAS are when a child:

• Does not always say words the same way each time he/she says them
• Understands what people say better than how well he/she can talk
• Has difficulty repeating what other people say
• Has more difficulty saying longer words compared to shorter ones
• Is hard to understand

Source: ASHA