12/15/2025
This is the number one thing people don’t understand about Childhood Apraxia of Speech from my lived experience… we can experience cognitive overload from the speech demand itself. It’s not just anxiety. It’s not behavior. It’s not lack of effort. The very act of trying to speak, planning, sequencing, timing, and executing movements, can overload our brain. When that happens, speech can further break down, even though the desire to speak is there. The brain-to-mouth disconnection becomes harder under pressure, stress, or time demands.
During cognitive overload, you may see increased groping, long pauses, abandoned words, or a sudden drop in intelligibility. This is why speech can worsen when we’re anxious or put on the spot… not because we “forgot” how to talk, but because the system is overloaded and can’t hold the motor plan together anymore. The fear of going back into that overloaded state is real, and for me, it stuck with me for a long time.
That’s where, for me, avoidance of verbal tasks comes in. Avoidance isn’t laziness or defiance, it’s a coping mechanism. If speaking has repeatedly pushed someone into overload, their nervous system learns to protect them by pulling back. The problem is, when adults punish or force through that avoidance instead of understanding it, the cycle gets worse. We don’t need more pressure… we need better coping tools.
Overload in CAS often looks like for me frustration after repeated communication failures. Some people can act out because they can’t express themselves fast enough. Others go quiet and compliant, like I did as a child, which is more dangerous because adults assume they’re “fine” when they’re actually struggling internally.
What helps is lowering verbal demand while keeping communication access high. Honoring AAC for children without treating it as “giving up.” Slowing the rate. Reducing repetitions. Allowing real response time. Building in silent processing breaks.
CAS isn’t just about motor planning. It’s about capacity, regulation, and respecting the limits of a motor system under pressure.
When we stop blaming… we start supporting— and this includes with ourselves.
- Jordan Christian LeVan
