These inconsistencies can easily lead to confusion on the part of both the child and the parent. The child learns that he cannot trust himself to communicate his ideas well, and the parent may wonder whether the child is just being careless or lazy. The length of a phrase as an adverse effect on articulation. Generally, the longer the utterance, the worse the speech accuracy. A child may be able to say syllables and short words fairly well but be impossible to understand in phrases or sentences.
Apraxic children are usually better at imitating speech than at saying words spontaneously.
If you ask a child to say a words right after you, he is likely to say it more accurately than if he said it without your model. Anxiety may affect a child's ability to speak well. For all of us, performing is more difficult than talking. Under stress, the ability to retrieve motor plans becomes more challenging. Children with DAS may also lose words.