title: Coarticulation patterns in children with developmental apraxia of speech.
abstract: The aim of this study was to enhance our insight into the underlying deficit in developmental apraxia of speech (DAS). In particular, the involvement of planning and/or programming of speech movements in context was tested by analysing coarticulatory cohesion. For this purpose, second formant frequency measurements were conducted in repetitions of nonsense utterances ([[symbol: see text]] C = /s,x,b,d/; V = /i.a.u/), and compared across nine children with DAS, six normally speaking (NS) children and six adult women. The results showed both intra- and intersyllabic anticipatory coarticulation in NS children and adult women, in which the intersyllabic coarticulation was stronger in NS children than in adult women. The children with DAS showed more variability as compared to NS children, made, on average, less distinction between the vowels, and showed individually idiosyncratic coarticulation patterns. These results are discussed in the light of a delay as well as a deviance of speech development in children with DAS.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Paediatric Neurology/Medical Psychology, University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands. l.nijland@cukz.umcn.nl
authors.forename: Lian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nijland
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maassen
authors.forename: Sjoeke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van der Meulen
authors.forename: Fons
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gabreels
authors.forename: Floris W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Kraaimaat
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schreuder
mesh_terms: D001072:Apraxias / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013061:Speech Acoustics