Microstructure and macrostructure narrative skills in children with childhood apraxia of speech

To characterise strengths and weaknesses in microstructure and macrostructure narrative skills in children with childhood apraxia of speech compared to children with typical development.

We present data from 38 children (aged 4-11 years), including 18 children with childhood apraxia of speech and 20 children with typical development. Eleven children with childhood apraxia of speech had a documented language disorder. Children generated narratives for two wordless videos. Group differences on microstructural and macrostructural variables were assessed using Mann-Whitney U tests. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to assess the strength of association between key age, speech, and narrative measures within each group.

Children with childhood apraxia of speech produced utterances with lower morphosyntactic complexity and productive vocabulary, included fewer total words and scored lower on every macrostructural measure; though only conclusion and the narrative total score were significantly different from children with typical development. Age was significantly correlated with several measures in children with typical development, whereas speech accuracy was significantly correlated with several measures in children with childhood apraxia of speech.

We documented strengths and weaknesses in children with childhood apraxia of speech that generally align with and extend prior literature. Overall, children with childhood apraxia of speech are able to adequately convey many story components despite speech and microstructural difficulties. Clinical implications are discussed.