DCD or Childhood Apraxia of Speech: How to Tell

Two different challenges, two different parts of the body — telling them apart begins with noticing where your child struggles most: the hands and body, or the mouth and speech.

In short

These are two separate things. Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is about movement and motor planning of the body — a child who is clumsy, struggles with buttons, cutlery, catching a ball or learning to ride a bike, beyond what's expected for their age. Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is about motor planning of speech — a child who knows what they want to say but whose mouth struggles to make the right sounds in the right order, so words come out inconsistent and hard to understand. A child can have one, the other, or both — and only a qualified clinician can tell which, after watching your child closely.

How they tend to look

Signs that point towards DCD (body movement):

• Late or awkward with skills like jumping, hopping, doing up buttons or using cutlery.
• Bumps into things, drops things, seems clumsy beyond age.
• Finds handwriting, drawing or dressing effortful and tiring.
• Avoids physical play or sport because it feels hard.

Signs that point towards CAS (speech movement):

• Says the same word differently each time they try.
• Searching or groping movements of the lips and tongue before a word.
• Speech is hard to understand even for familiar listeners.
• Understands far more than they can say clearly — the gap between comprehension and clear speech is large.

Important: occasional clumsiness or unclear speech is normal in young children. It's a persistent pattern that's out of step with same-age peers — and that gets in the way of daily life — that's worth a closer look.

When to seek a check

There's no single home test that separates DCD from CAS — and many features overlap or co-occur, which is exactly why a structured clinician assessment matters. Seek a developmental check if your child is noticeably behind peers in motor skills or if their speech stays hard to understand and inconsistent past toddlerhood. Earlier support generally helps more, so trust your instinct rather than waiting.

The Pinnacle way

AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional — never from an online list or app. Our therapists observe your child's movement and speech directly to build a precise developmental profile, then shape support through targeted occupational therapy for body coordination and speech therapy for speech motor planning. Begin anytime at Pinnacle Blooms Network.

Trusted sources

WHO ICD-11 (developmental motor coordination disorder; developmental speech sound disorder); American Speech-Language-Hearing Association guidance on Childhood Apraxia of Speech; American Academy of Pediatrics (HealthyChildren.org) developmental milestone guidance.

Next step — Unsure which path fits your child? Book a developmental assessment with a Pinnacle clinician — we'll look at both movement and speech and guide you clearly.

This is general information, not a diagnosis — individual assessment and diagnosis require an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.