Is Developmental Apraxia Of Speech (DAS) Hereditary?

by Frank
(Canada)

My Grandson who will be four soon has Developmental Apraxia of Speech. When he was younger he too was showing signs of what was thought to be autism, but that was ruled out.



His speech therapist, as well as our family, help him out and he has learned a few words and phrases and is coming along. He is also getting less frustrated when I have him repeat what I say.

Back to my question… I am almost 50 years old and I also had Apraxia when I was younger (as did my father). All I really have now is sort of a stutter when I try to speak too quickly, but the words are sometimes hard to get out.

My son, the father of my Grandson never had any trouble learning to talk, quite the opposite, he was an early talker.

Would it be wrong to say it is hereditary? Will my Grandson’s children have it?

Bob Frank




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Nov 18, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		encouragement
by: Anonymous

I am doing biology in my last year at high school and came upon this site.I am 17 years old. I struggled to speak till I was 6 and even now when I get tired or stressed I stutter and struggle to get words out I under went occupational therapy until I was 13. I just want to comment that I would not have it any other way. I am now a very confident person and enjoy speaking in front of people. I just want to encouragement you that even with this your children can and will live normal happy lives they just need to work abit harder then other people but that is good in the long run as it will help them in the future.

Good luck.
May 08, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Not for sure
by: Anonymous

There is no absolute proof that it is hereditary although there have been some case studies of a family who has had it for generations.

There is a lot of information on Apraxia at apraxia_kids.org I encourage you to start with the family section.

My son was diagnosed with severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech at age 3 and is now almost seven and doing wonderfully. (It did require three and a half years of intensive speech therapy and a LOT of work on his part)

Best of luck to your grandson. I truly believe intervention is the key!
Apr 30, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		apraxia of speech can be hereditary
by: Anonymous

YES it is hereditary but it doesn't mean it has to be. I have a 5 year old who can talk all day long but my 4 year old has struggled to be able to talk. My husband had speech delays, his mother and her brother and sister. I don't believe any of them were as bad as my 4 year old.

She has been in speech class 3 days a week for almost 2 years and at times i still can not understand what she is trying to say however most times i can now understand her but her pitches and tones are off. she could not say a sentence until 4 years old. she most likely also has sensory processing issues. it appears she has many hyposensitivies. she also had lack of oxygen at 3 days old so that might of made her speech problem worst but i am quite sure the initial problem came from husband gene's. she even looks like him and my 5 year old looks like me. don't worry though most people with apraxia eventually learn to talk and speech therapy helps in a big way. my husband is not a good reader and can not spell that well but he can build almost anything and he is quite handy.

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