scholarly journals Concurrent Validity Between Two Sound Sequencing Tasks Used to Identify Childhood Apraxia of Speech in School-Age Children

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

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.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 794-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina R. Benway ◽  
Jonathan L. Preston

Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate whether features of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) identified in previous literature could be replicated in a sample of school-age children. Method A literature review was conducted to identify candidate speech features that have been previously considered when differentiating CAS from other types of speech sound disorders (SSDs). The candidate features recoverable from blinded transcriptions of multisyllable word repetitions (MSWRs) were applied to a cohort of 61 children aged 7–17 years, previously classified as having CAS ( n = 21) or non-CAS SSD ( n = 40). Results One hundred and ninety-four features had been explored in previous literature to assess their ability to differentiate CAS from other SSDs. Fifteen perceptual features were selected from this list to be applied to performance on the MSWR. In this sample, children with CAS differed from children with SSD on the prevalence of voicing changes, percentage of structurally correct words, correct lexical stress, and syllable deletions within a speech corpus derived from the MSWR task. Conclusion Although previous literature points to numerous features as differentiating CAS from other SSDs, only a portion of those features were replicated in this sample of school-age children. Features of CAS that affect segmental accuracy, prosody, and word structure may be likely to persist into late childhood and early adolescence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Worawan Wattanawongsawang

Childhood apraxia of speech is a neurological speech sound disorder in which the child has inadequate the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech production in the absence of neuromuscular deficits. Children with apraxia of speech require intensive and specialized training in order to enable them to communicate effectively. The principles of the speech therapy program include stimulating speaking and communicating in daily life as well as practicing to speak clearly. The purpose of this article is to discuss the principles of speech therapy based on motor learning, speech stimulation and daily life communication, exercises to promote oral motor planning for each speech sound, and inclusion of the family into the team working with the child.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. e2249108480
Author(s):  
Gabriela Brum dos Santos ◽  
Marileda Barichello Gubiani ◽  
Leticia Arruda Nóro ◽  
Helena Bolli Mota

Objetivo: realizar uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o atraso motor de fala não especificado, como ele é avaliado e ainda como se diferencia de outras desordens motoras da fala. Estratégia de pesquisa: Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa da literatura. Realizou-se a busca nas bases SciELO, PubMed, Medine e Scopus no mês de novembro de 2019. Para as quatro bases foram utilizados os seguintes construtos e descritores: “motor speech disorders” OR “childhood apraxia of speech” OR “childhood apraxia of speech cas” OR “developmental dyspraxia” OR “speech sound disorder” AND “speech motor control”, além da utilização de dois filtros: sujeitos até 18 anos e humanos. Critérios de seleção: Artigos publicados em português, inglês ou espanhol foram incluídos, sendo ou não de periódicos de acesso livre. Foram excluídos artigos que não estavam relacionados ao atraso motor de fala não especificado e estudos de revisão de literatura. Resultados: Foram encontrados56 artigos nas bases de dados, sendo 33 da base Scopus, 19 da PubMed, 3 da SciElo e 1 da Medline. Após análise e seleção pelos critérios de inclusão, foram selecionados 14 estudos. Posteriormente a leitura integral dos artigos, 8 estudos foram excluídos, pois não respondiam as perguntas norteadoras da pesquisa, obtendo-se um n de 6 estudos. Conclusão: Muitas crianças com atraso significativo na fala são diagnosticadas erroneamente, sendo o DMS-NOS a desordem de maior prevalência na infância.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 3714-3726
Author(s):  
Sherine R. Tambyraja ◽  
Kelly Farquharson ◽  
Laura Justice

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which school-age children with speech sound disorder (SSD) exhibit concomitant reading difficulties and examine the extent to which phonological processing and speech production abilities are associated with increased likelihood of reading risks. Method Data were obtained from 120 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade children who were in receipt of school-based speech therapy services. Children were categorized as being “at risk” for reading difficulties if standardized scores on a word decoding measure were 1 SD or more from the mean. The selected predictors of reading risk included children's rapid automatized naming ability, phonological awareness (PA), and accuracy of speech sound production. Results Descriptive results indicated that just over 25% of children receiving school-based speech therapy for an SSD exhibited concomitant deficits in word decoding and that those exhibiting risk at the beginning of the school year were likely to continue to be at risk at the end of the school year. Results from a hierarchical logistic regression suggested that, after accounting for children's age, general language abilities, and socioeconomic status, both PA and speech sound production abilities were significantly associated with the likelihood of being classified as at risk. Conclusions School-age children with SSD are at increased risk for reading difficulties that are likely to persist throughout an academic year. The severity of phonological deficits, reflected by PA and speech output, may be important indicators of subsequent reading problems.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 2229-2244
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Roepke ◽  
Kathryn E. Bower ◽  
Catherine A. Miller ◽  
Françoise Brosseau-Lapré

Purpose This study compared performance on the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT) by preschoolers with diverse speech and language abilities to identify underlying impairments in speech processes. Method Three groups of 13 children ages 4 and 5 years with (a) typically developing (TD) speech and language, (b) speech sound disorder (SSD), and (c) comorbid developmental language disorder and speech sound disorder (DLD + SSD) completed the SRT. We calculated competence, memory, encoding, and transcoding scores, as well as word-initial stress pattern and vowel accuracy. Results A 3 × 3 (Group × Syllable length) factorial multivariate analysis of covariance revealed group differences for all measures and syllable length differences for memory, transcoding, and competence. There were no interactions between group and syllable length. TD children obtained the highest scores on each measure, though children with DLD + SSD performed similarly to TD children on encoding when vocabulary was included as a covariate. Children with SSD only outperformed children with DLD + SSD on competence and transcoding, and these two groups performed similarly on memory. A separate exploratory analysis using a 3 × 3 multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that children with DLD + SSD were more likely than children in the other groups to produce weak word-initial stress and vowel errors during syllable repetition. Conclusion Children with SSD and DLD + SSD exhibit underlying phonological deficits on the SRT compared to TD children. Results support the claim that memory and encoding are deficits in SSD. In addition, transcoding deficits were identified among children with no known oromotor impairment. Therefore, more research is required to identify the relationship between SRT performance and explicit measures of phonological processing.


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