Speech characteristics of childhood apraxia of speech: A survey research

There has not been any valid method for the clinical diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) up to now, and the golden standard for diagnosis is the expert's opinion. The current research was conducted to obtain criteria used by the Iranian Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) to establish speech characteristics and co-occurring problems of CAS based on their knowledge and clinical experience.

This research used a questionnaire-based survey design for data collection. The questionnaire was filled out by 260 anonymous participants, both physically and online.

The nine top speech characteristics reported with 75.6% agreement as the core symptoms of CAS included: inconsistency (86.9%), consonant sequencing problems (75%), low intelligibility (75%), groping (72.7%), slow diadochokinetic (DDK) (72.3%), articulatory configuration problems (66.2%), difficulty with multisyllabic words (62.7%), suprasegmental disturbances (56.2%) and metathesis (53.5%). The consent of the Iranian practicing SLPs was consistent with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) diagnostic criteria, Strand's 10-point checklist, and Ozanne's cluster model. More than half of the respondents have been identified with fine motor deficit and language impairment as the most common co-occurring problems of CAS.

The results of this study are in accordance with the findings of previous practicing SLPs' surveys in different languages. Carrying out researches on the speech characteristics of Persian-speaking children suspected of CAS and compare with the results of clinicians' surveys will help us to find a reliable standard for differential diagnosis of Persian-speaking children in Iran.