Date of Completion

Spring 4-29-2016

Thesis Advisor(s)

Carl A. Coelho; Jennifer Mozeiko

Honors Major

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Disciplines

Cognitive Neuroscience | Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

In the past, clinicians have diagnosed acquired apraxia of speech based upon the presentation of an inconsistent error pattern. However, recent research studies have begun to suggest quite the contrary, pointing towards a consistent pattern of errors in the speech of those with apraxia. The present study utilized an intensive Sound Production Treatment (SPT) for a 51-year-old male with severe acquired apraxia of speech and moderate-severe aphasia. Treatment was administered over a period of five days per week, three hours a day, for two consecutive weeks. During this treatment, probes were gathered daily to evaluate the efficacy of the intensive SPT for apraxia. Baseline data and follow-up data for one, four and eight weeks post treatment were also collected. Based upon analyses of transcriptions from speech samples, collected during the baseline, probe, and follow-up testing,, accuracy data was used to evaluate the argument for consistency of errors in apraxia of speech. The analysis of consistency comprehensively focused on the manner of articulation in consonants including the categories: stop, fricative, affricate, nasal approximant, retroflex approximant, and lateral approximant. Results of this study support recent research indicating that errors are indeed consistent rather than inconsistent in the speech of those with apraxia. Future studies will seek to confirm these findings with analyses of a larger sample size and evaluation of vowels as well. These findings have important implications for increasing our understanding of the diagnostic criteria of apraxia of speech and its appropriate treatment.

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