Improving Intelligibility in Childhood Apraxia of Speech Through Communication Partner Training

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Auditory perception
• Child development

Background:

• Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is characterized by speech variability.
• Speech predictability drives perceptual learning of degraded speech signals.
• Understanding CAS speech is challenging for listeners.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if naive and familiar listeners can improve understanding of a child with CAS through perceptual training.
• To determine if speech predictability in CAS supports perceptual learning.
• To assess if listener familiarity impacts learning gains.

Main Methods:

• A case study involving a 4-year-old boy with CAS.
• Listeners (naive and familiar) underwent a pretest-training-posttest paradigm.
• Intelligibility was measured by percent words correct before and after training.

Main Results:

• Naive listeners trained on CAS speech showed significant intelligibility improvements.
• Familiar listeners demonstrated greater intelligibility gains than naive listeners.
• Control listeners trained on typical speech showed no improvement.

Conclusions:

• Perceptual training can enhance the intelligibility of children with CAS for communication partners.
• Sufficient predictability exists in CAS speech to support learning.
• Learning is not limited by listener familiarity with the child.