Autism or Apraxia?

Last January, our youngest was diagnosed with Autism. The docs who diagnosed him said that between the speech delay and the lack or social interaction, it was a definite.

Then, this Spring, Emerson's Speech Therapist came to me and said she thought that he has something called Childhood Apraxia of Speech. I had no idea what that was, but geez, another diagnosis? Really? C'mon.

I sighed. Waited a few minute to sink in and then went into research mode.

OK, he has Apraxia. Now what?

Of course, Dr. Google always helps (notes below are from asha.com):

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. The brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g., lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech. The child knows what he or she wants to say, but his/her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words.

Only a few different consonant and vowel sounds

Problems combining sounds; may show long pauses between sounds

Simplifies words by replacing difficult sounds with easier ones or by deleting difficult sounds

May have problems eating

Makes inconsistent sound errors that are not the result of immaturity

Can understand language much better than he or she can talk

Has difficulty imitating speech, but imitated speech is more clear than spontaneous speech

May appear to be groping when attempting to produce sounds or to coordinate the lips, tongue, and jaw for purposeful movement

Has more difficulty saying longer words or phrases clearly than shorter ones

Appears to have more difficulty when he or she is anxious

Is hard to understand, especially for an unfamiliar listener

Sounds choppy, monotonous, or stresses the wrong syllable or word

I also went to You Tube and there are tons of video examples of kids with apraxia talking. I was able to hear their speech patterns and know that Emerson does in fact have it.

The above checklist could be written describing all of Emerson's speech troubles. He frequently uses one to three word sentences instead of longer sentences, just because he can count on people understanding one or two words. If he uses more than just a few, he loses intelligibility.

Here is some video of Emerson's speech:

So here is my big question, which I will be posing to doctor's at his next appointment: Does Emerson have Autism (because the checklist above also applies to kids with ASD), or does he have Apraxia and is just a little shy?

(And does it really matter, because they're just labels anyways....?)