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

We address explanatory issues raised by prior ® ndings on the prosody-voice characteristics of suspected apraxia of speech in children (AOSc). Prosodyvoice 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 signi® cantly fewer utterances meeting criteria for inappropriate stress, and signi® cantly 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 de® cit in AOSci including candidate loci within linguistic, motor speech, and self-monitoring processes.