May 9, 2026 · 1:18 · Practice · Session planning
H Is for High-Frequency Practice | Apraxia Awareness Month
In this May Motor Speech Takeover video, Nicole explains why high-frequency, massed practice comes first when organizing therapy sessions for children with childhood apraxia of speech, and how principles of motor learning guide what comes next.
Full transcript
Hi, it's Nicole coming in from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. We know May is Apraxia Awareness Month, and we are in the middle of our May Motor Speech Takeover, and I am at H. And H stands for high-frequency practice.
So what we know about organizing our client sessions is that we want to maximize their potential. And in the very beginning, and always, we're thinking about principles of motor learning. But in the very beginning, what we want to be thinking about is high-frequency massed practice, meaning I have my target, I'm working on it in blocked practice, or repetitive practice, over and over and over again with multisensory cueing.
I'm doing a lot, a lot of practice in the beginning because I'm shaping the learning, and I want to really help this child lay that motor plan down. After that, we think about retention and, you know, transfer and generalization, and what that looks like.
I have created a Motor Learning Clinical Decision Guide to help you with these decisions and to outline a little bit more about principles of motor learning and how they can really work for you in your sessions. So if you just comment "guide," it'll come in your DMs.
Happy Apraxia Awareness Month!
