Acoustic analysis of spatiotemporal variability in children with childhood apraxia of speech

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a pediatric neurological motor speech disorder characterized by impaired speech execution in the absence of neuromuscular deficits. Children with CAS show distinct speech features, including sequencing, coarticulation, and prosodic deficits, compared to children with other speech disorders. The core deficit in CAS is at the level of planning and programming the precise spatiotemporal parameters of movement sequences necessary to produce natural-sounding speech. This study will investigate spatiotemporal variability in children with CAS compared to children with typical development (TD) using the acoustic spatiotemporal index (aSTI). The aSTI measures spatiotemporal variability in the amplitude envelope of speech sounds across multiple repetitions of an utterance; higher aSTI values reflect higher movement variability. In the current project, children with CAS and TD were recruited nationally to participate in an online study investigating language and motor skills. Children produced 10 repetitions of “Buy Bobby a puppy” and “Mom pets the puppy”; we analyzed these two sentences using the aSTI. Data from 20 children (CAS = 10; TD = 10), ranging in age from 7- to 12-years-old, will be presented. We predict that children with CAS will show higher aSTI values compared to children with TD.