Developmental Apraxia of Speech in Children with Defective Articulation

To identify behaviors which might distinguish developmental apraxia of speech from “functional” articulation disorders, 30 children with moderate to severe defective articulation but with normal intelligence, hearing, and language abilities and with no apparent organic pathologic condition and a group of matched control subjects were given a battery of speech and nonspeech tests. Pediatric neurologic examinations were completed for the subjects with defective articulation. Speech data were analyzed according to type of articulation error and by a method of distinctive-feature categorization. Highly significant differences were found between control and defective articulation subjects. A rationale was established for division of the defective articulation group on the basis of their performance on isolated volitional oral movement tasks. Combinations of variables that emerged as statistically significant differentiating predictors between these two subgroups of subjects with defective articulation were neurologic ratings, two- and three-feature errors, distortions, prolongations and repetitions, additions, one-place errors, and omissions. These behavioral differences support the conclusion that an identifiable developmental apraxia of speech exists in some children with defective articulation.