12/18/2025
Thank you for sharing Jordan! ā¤ļø
This is the number one thing people donāt understand about Childhood Apraxia of Speech from my lived experienceā¦ we can experience cognitive overload from the speech demand itself. Itās not just anxiety. Itās not behavior. Itās 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 weāre anxious or put on the spotā¦ not because we āforgotā how to talk, but because the system is overloaded and canāt 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.
Thatās where, for me, avoidance of verbal tasks comes in. Avoidance isnāt laziness or defiance, itās 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 donāt need more pressureā¦ 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 canāt express themselves fast enough. Others go quiet and compliant, like I did as a child, which is more dangerous because adults assume theyāre āfineā when theyāre actually struggling internally.
What helps is lowering verbal demand while keeping communication access high. Honoring AAC for children without treating it as āgiving up.ā Slowing the rate. Reducing repetitions. Allowing real response time. Building in silent processing breaks.
CAS isnāt just about motor planning. Itās about capacity, regulation, and respecting the limits of a motor system under pressure.
When we stop blamingā¦ we start supportingā and this includes with ourselves.
- Jordan Christian LeVan
