Abstract
Purpose This case-control study sought to determine if (a) children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), other speech sound disorders (SSDs), and typical development would perform differently on a procedural learning assessment and (b) whether grammatical ability would impact group differences. Method Communication, motor, and procedural learning abilities were assessed in 48 children with CAS (n = 13), SSD (n = 20), and typical development (n = 15), between 43 and 97 months of age (M = 66 months, SD = 12 months). Results On average, children with CAS demonstrated grammatical and motor impairments and required an increased number of exposures to the visuospatial sequence to demonstrate procedural learning, compared to peers with SSD or typical development. A subset of children from each group demonstrated an unanticipated procedural learning pattern wherein they evidenced an uptick in reaction time during the second sequenced block. Children with CAS with this pattern still evidenced procedural learning gains by the fifth sequenced block. In contrast, children with SSD and typical development with this pattern showed poor procedural learning outcomes and were characterized by lower scores on language and motor assessments as well. Conclusions This research provides partial support for the procedural learning deficit hypothesis in children with CAS and for a subset of children with SSD as well. Future research should examine the role of a serial reaction time task in identifying children at risk of multisystem communication and motor deficits. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14173532.
Highlights
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological speech disorder in which the motor planning and programming of speech movements is impaired without neuromuscular deficits such as abnormal tone (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2007)
The procedural learning deficit hypothesis suggests that a procedural learning impairment underlies multisystem motor and cognitive–linguistic deficits experienced by a variety of populations and has been used as one possible explanation for the co-occurrence of these deficits in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia (Nicolson & Fawcett, 2007; Sanjeevan & Mainela-Arnold, 2017)
An ANOVA showed a main effect of group for nonverbal IQ, F(2, 43) = 4.57, p = .016, ηp2 = .167, where the CAS group scored significantly lower than the typically developing (TD) group (p = .013). t Kruskal–Wallis tests revealed a group difference for oral function scores on the oral mechanism assessment, H(2) = 17.70, p = .001, where the CAS group performed more poorly than the TD ( p < .001) and sound disorders (SSDs) ( p = .025) groups; no other group differences for oral function were detected
Summary
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological speech disorder in which the motor planning and programming of speech movements is impaired without neuromuscular deficits such as abnormal tone (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2007). We test the procedural learning deficit hypothesis in children with CAS, in comparison to their peers with typical development and other speech sound disorders (SSDs). Sanjeevan and Mainela-Arnold deduced that procedural learning impairments in children with DLD are restricted to complex sequence learning tasks and spare the visual–motor adaptation system
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