Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult for children to speak. They know what they wish to say but it does not come out. The communication between the brain and the muscles is lost somewhere and the kids have to retrain their brain to say things. The cause is essentially unknown. When you try to find what causes it you get a lot of "there are many things that can cause this" but they don't know what exactly does. According to the Mayo Clinic "Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) has a number of possible causes, but in many cases a cause can't be determined." 

Xavier was diagnosed early on and he has been going to speech therapy for 3 years. The 1st year it was 2 followed by 3 followed by 2 followed by 3 (and so on) times a week.And for the last 2 years and still going with 3 times a week. In that time he came a long way. In the beginning he used baby signs followed by a "talker" which was an iPad with Words for Life app. At 3 years old he was using the full version of Words for Life and navigating 3 pages with no issues. The app is exclusively on iTunes and $300 adding that to the price of an iPad $200 plus the price for a case that a 3 year old can drop and iPad to not shatter in the process the total ends up being $550+

Apraxia Kids has an income based program that helps kids get those speech tablets. They provide information, brochures, support and they do research.