Prosody-voice characteristics of children and adults with apraxia of speech

We address explanatory issues raised by prior findings on the prosody-voice characteristics of suspected apraxia of speech in children (AOSc). Prosody-voice patterns for 14 adults with apraxia of speech (AOS) were compared to the prosody-voice patterns of 14 children with suspected apraxia of speech and inappropriate stress (AOSci) using the same assessment instruments and analysis methods. Compared to the speakers with AOSci, speakers with AOS had significantly fewer utterances meeting criteria for inappropriate stress, and significantly more utterances meeting criteria for inappropriate phrasing and inappropriate rate of speech. Discussion focuses on the implications of these three dissociations for the psycholinguistic locus of the stress deficit in AOSci including candidate loci within linguistic, motor speech, and self-monitoring processes.