Evidence of motor programming deficits in children diagnosed with DAS

In this study the hypothesis of motor programming involvement in developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) was investigated by studying articulatory compensation. Five children with DAS and 5 normally speaking children (age 5;0 [years;months] to 6;10), and 6 adult women produced utterances in a normal speaking condition and in a bite-block condition in which the mandible was kept in a fixed position. Throughout the utterances, the course of the second formant was used to determine articulatory compensation and the effect of the bite block on anticipatory coarticulation. Results showed that the bite-block condition in normally speaking children, like in adult women, did not affect the extent of anticipatory coarticulation. In the speech of children with DAS, the bite block had large effects on coarticulatory patterns and on vowel quality, which, contrary to expectations, had improved. These results are interpreted as a clear demonstration of deficient motor programming in DAS.