Which information is most helpful in differentiating childhood apraxia of speech from flaccid dysarthria in a child?

• A. The child's willingness to function in sociocommunicative events
• B. A history of the child's development of chewing, eating, and swallowing
• C. The child's articulation performance at the sentence level
• D. The child's language development history

Answer: (B)

The main idea is to look at non-speech oral motor history to tell apart a motor planning disorder from a motor weakness disorder. Flaccid dysarthria involves weakness of the muscles used for speech and swallowing, so problems with chewing and swallowing often appear early and persist. Childhood apraxia of speech, on the other hand, is a planning/programming issue for speech movements, and non-speech oral motor skills like chewing and swallowing are typically normal or not as affected. Therefore, a history showing typical development of chewing, eating, and swallowing strongly points to CAS rather than flaccid dysarthria. Other factors like social willingness, sentence-level articulation, or language history can be influenced by many things and don’t differentiate the two as clearly.