scholarly journals Language Skill Mediates the Relationship Between Language Load and Articulatory Variability in Children With Language and Speech Sound Disorders

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (12) ◽  
pp. 3010-3022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Vuolo ◽  
Lisa Goffman

Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between language load and articulatory variability in children with language and speech sound disorders, including childhood apraxia of speech. Method Forty-six children, ages 48–92 months, participated in the current study, including children with speech sound disorder, developmental language disorder (aka specific language impairment), childhood apraxia of speech, and typical development. Children imitated (low language load task) then retrieved (high language load task) agent + action phrases. Articulatory variability was quantified using speech kinematics. We assessed language status and speech status (typical vs. impaired) in relation to articulatory variability. Results All children showed increased articulatory variability in the retrieval task compared with the imitation task. However, only children with language impairment showed a disproportionate increase in articulatory variability in the retrieval task relative to peers with typical language skills. Conclusion Higher-level language processes affect lower-level speech motor control processes, and this relationship appears to be more strongly mediated by language than speech skill.

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria I. Grigos

Speech sound disorders (SSDs) are commonly viewed as involving impaired articulation and/or phonological skills. Speech language pathologists working with individuals with (SSDs) assess the articulation of speech sounds and the coordination of articulatory structures with other components of the speech mechanism, including the phonatory, respiratory, and resonatory subsystems. The sound system of the language and the rules that govern how phonemes are combined are equally critical for clinicians to explore. While the terms “articulation” and “phonology” provide clinicians with a framework for classification, children who are broadly identified with (SSDs) may also display characteristics of a motor speech impairment, which can obscure the decision making process with respect to both diagnosis and treatment. One such motor speech disorder is childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The focus of this paper is to discuss motor speech deficits in children and to review research that aims to distinguish motor speech patterns in children with (SSDs) with and without CAS. We will also address the relationship between emerging speech motor and linguistic skills.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHELLEY L. VELLEMAN

Although not the focus of her article, phonological development in young children with speech sound disorders of various types is highly germane to Stoel-Gammon's discussion (this issue) for at least two primary reasons. Most obvious is that typical processes and milestones of phonological development are the standards and benchmarks against which we measure disorder and delay. Factors that impact children without disorders may suggest underlying causes or co-occurring symptoms of speech sound deficits, prognostic indicators of improvement, appropriate remediation strategies or some combination of these. Equally important is the fact that studying children with disorders can help us to verify and, in some cases, even unpack relationships among factors that are so closely interwoven in children who develop their phonologies at the typically very rapid rate that their individual influences cannot be discerned. Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a particularly interesting case in point because, while it is universally accepted to be a motor speech disorder, symptoms include deficits in speech perception and often in literacy-related skills as well.


2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S. Dale ◽  
Deborah A. Hayden

Purpose Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT; Hayden, 2004; Hayden, Eigen, Walker, & Olsen, 2010)—a treatment approach for the improvement of speech sound disorders in children—uses tactile-kinesthetic-proprioceptive (TKP) cues to support and shape movements of the oral articulators. No research to date has systematically examined the efficacy of PROMPT for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Method Four children (ages 3;6 [years;months] to 4;8), all meeting the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2007) criteria for CAS, were treated using PROMPT. All children received 8 weeks of 2 × per week treatment, including at least 4 weeks of full PROMPT treatment that included TKP cues. During the first 4 weeks, 2 of the 4 children received treatment that included all PROMPT components except TKP cues. This design permitted both between-subjects and within-subjects comparisons to evaluate the effect of TKP cues. Gains in treatment were measured by standardized tests and by criterion-referenced measures based on the production of untreated probe words, reflecting change in speech movements and auditory perceptual accuracy. Results All 4 children made significant gains during treatment, but measures of motor speech control and untreated word probes provided evidence for more gain when TKP cues were included. Conclusion PROMPT as a whole appears to be effective for treating children with CAS, and the inclusion of TKP cues appears to facilitate greater effect.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia Abdou ◽  
Omayma Afsah ◽  
Hemmat Baz ◽  
Tamer Abou-Elsaad

Abstract Background Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in absence of neuromuscular deficits. It is important to differentiate between language disorders and CAS to avoid misdiagnosis. The objective of this study was to develop a test battery for CAS in order to identify its possible presence in Arabic-speaking children, thus allowing the planning of appropriate therapy programs. The constructed test battery for CAS was administered to 70 monolingual Arabic-speaking Egyptian children including 10 children with suspected CAS, 20 children with phonological disorders, and 40 typically developing children. Participants’ responses were statistically analyzed to assess the validity and reliability, and to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of the test battery. Results Statistically significant differences were found between the three groups as regard all subtotal and total scores of CAS test battery with good validity and reliability of the test. Conclusions The constructed test battery for diagnosis of CAS is a reliable, valid, and sensitive tool that can be used to detect the presence of CAS in Arabic-speaking children and differentiate between it and phonological disorders.


Author(s):  
Jonathan L. Preston ◽  
Nina R. Benway ◽  
Megan C. Leece ◽  
Nicole F. Caballero

Purpose To assess the concurrent validity of two tasks used to inform diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), this study evaluated the agreement between the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT) and the Maximum Repetition Rate of Trisyllables (MRR-Tri). Method A retrospective analysis was conducted with 80 children 7–16 years of age who were referred for treatment studies. All children had a speech sound disorder, and all completed both the SRT and the MRR-Tri. On each task, children were classified as meeting or not meeting the tool's threshold for CAS based on the sound sequencing errors demonstrated. Results The two tasks were in agreement for 47 participants (59% of the sample); both tasks classified 13 children as meeting the threshold for CAS and 34 children as not meeting the threshold for CAS. However, the two tasks disagreed on CAS classification for 33 children (41% of the sample). Overall, the MRR-Tri identified more children as having sound sequencing errors indicative of CAS ( n = 39) than did the SRT ( n = 20). Conclusions These two tasks of sound sequencing differ in the children they identify with CAS, possibly due to aspects of the underlying task requirements (e.g., time pressure). The SRT and the MRR-Tri should not be used in isolation to identify CAS but may be useful as part of a balanced CAS assessment battery that includes additional tasks that inform the nature of the impairment and that aid treatment planning. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14110280


Author(s):  
Rinat Gold ◽  
Dina Klein ◽  
Osnat Segal

Purpose: The bouba-kiki (BK) effect refers to associations between visual shapes and auditory pseudonames. Thus, when tested, people tend to associate the pseudowords bouba and kiki with round or spiky shapes, respectively. This association requires cross-modal sensory integration. The ability to integrate information from different sensory modalities is crucial for speech development. A clinical population that may be impaired in cross-modal sensory integration is children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement of cross-modal sensory integration in children with (CAS). Method: The BK effect was assessed in participants with CAS ( n = 18) and two control groups: One control group was composed of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), also termed specific language impairment ( n = 15), and a second group included typically developing (TD) children ( n = 22). The children were presented with 14 pairs of novel visual displays and nonwords. All the children were asked to state which shape and nonword correspond to one another. In addition, background cognitive (Leiter-3) and language measures (Hebrew PLS-4) were determined for all children. Results: Children in the CAS group were less successful in associating between visual shapes and corresponding auditory pseudonames (e.g., associating the spoken word “bouba” with a round shape; the spoken word “kiki” with a spiky shape). Thus, children with CAS demonstrated a statistically significant reduced BK effect compared with participants with TD and participants with DLD. No significant difference was found between the TD group and the DLD group. Conclusions: The reduced BK effect in children with CAS supports the notion that cross-modal sensory integration may be altered in these children. Cross-modal sensory integration is the basis for speech production. Thus, difficulties in sensory integration may contribute to speech difficulties in CAS.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-150
Author(s):  
C. Melanie Schuele ◽  
Kristina Young

This article uses a case study to consider how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team meets the challenges of students with speech sound disorder plus specific language impairment. The case study student is a fourth grader with intellectual skills in the normal range whose speech and language skills have not normalized. Multiple challenges are described and opportunities for collaboration are illustrated.


CommonHealth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-56
Author(s):  
Kyra Skoog ◽  
Edwin Maas

Background: Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a pediatric speech disorder that significantly affects communication and life participation. Most CAS treatment research uses speech accuracy as primary outcome measure, on the assumption that accuracy predicts communicative success. However, this relationship has not yet been examined in this population, limiting our understanding of the impact of available treatments. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between speech accuracy and intelligibility in children with CAS. Intelligibility is defined here as the proportion of words correctly understood by an unfamiliar listener. Methods: Adult listeners, who were unfamiliar with children with CAS, listened to recordings of children with CAS producing single words, and typed what they heard the child say. Separately, and prior to the listening experiment, the children’s words were scored for accuracy using various measures, including the percent phonemes (sounds) correct (PPC), percent consonants correct (PCC), and percent vowels correct (PVC). The relationship between these accuracy measures and intelligibility were examined descriptively. Results: Preliminary findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between intelligibility and PPC and PCC in children with CAS. Conclusions: Implications of these findings for clinical practice as well as future treatment research are discussed.


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