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A Response to Mailend et al.: Refined Operational Definitions for the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale
Joseph R Duffy1, Rene L Utianski1, Edythe A Strand1
1Division of Speech Pathology, Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
Purpose:
This letter addresses a recent paper by Mailend et al. (2025) that expressed concerns about the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale (ASRS) and offered guidelines and definitions regarding its principles, scale labels, item definitions, and scoring procedures, including the addition of new items to the scale. The primary purpose of this letter is to clarify the uncertainty that other users of the scale may have about whether the current ASRS version (ASRS 3.5; Duffy et al., 2023) should be altered to include the numerous proposed revisions. It provides examples of proposed revisions that, in our judgment, are helpful, redundant, questionable or premature, or are misaligned with the primary purposes of the scale.
Conclusions:
Some of the proposed revisions to the ASRS are helpful and likely to improve reliability by reducing user uncertainty about ratings. Others are questionable or premature without supporting data or are not aligned with the primary purposes of the scale.
