Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe childhood dysarthria by means of auditory-perceptual analyses covering all speech subsystems. We aimed to identify the most seriously affected auditory-perceptual dimensions in the observed dysarthria profiles and to detect specific markers of childhood dysarthria against the backdrop of typical…

Purpose: Earlier investigations based on word and sentence repetition tasks had revealed that the most prevalent metrical pattern in German (the trochee)--unlike the iambic pattern--facilitates articulation in patients with apraxia of speech (AOS; e.g., Aichert, Späth, & Ziegler, 2016), confirming that segmental and prosodic aspects of speech…

Purpose: The aim of this longitudinal study was to describe developmental courses of childhood dysarthria against the background of typical speech motor development by collecting auditory-perceptual data. Method: Fourteen children (four girls, 10 boys; 5;1-8;4 [years;months] at Time 1) with neurological conditions (CNC) and 14 typically developing…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to collect auditory-perceptual data on established symptom categories of dysarthria from typically developing children between 3 and 9 years of age, for the purpose of creating age norms for dysarthria assessment. Method: One hundred forty-four typically developing children (3;0-9;11 [years;months], 72 girls and…

Purpose: Standardized clinical assessment of dysarthria is essential for management and research. We present a new, fully standardized dysarthria assessment, the Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales (BoDyS). The measurement model of the BoDyS is based on auditory evaluations of connected speech using 9 scales (traits) assessed by 4 elicitation methods.…

Purpose: Although dysarthria affects the large majority of individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) and can substantially complicate everyday communication, previous research has provided an incomplete picture of its clinical features. We aimed to comprehensively describe characteristics of dysarthria in adults with CP and to elucidate the impact of…

Purpose: This article was written as an editorial to a collection of original articles on apraxia of speech (AOS) in which some of the more recent advancements in the understanding of this syndrome are discussed. It covers controversial issues concerning the theoretical foundations of AOS. Our approach was motivated by a change of perspective on…

Purpose: Error variability has traditionally been considered a hallmark of apraxia of speech (AOS). However, in some of the current AOS literature, relatively invariable error patterns are claimed as a mandatory criterion for a diagnosis of AOS. This paradigm shift has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of the disorder and for its…

The term "phrase-level reduction" refers to transformations of the phonetic forms of words in connected speech. They are a characteristic property of fluent speech in normal speakers. Phrase-level reductions contribute to a reduction of articulatory-motor effort and constitute an important aspect of speech naturalness. So far, these phenomena have…

Background: A most important index of functional impairment in dysarthria is "intelligibility". The "Munich Intelligibility Profile" (MVP) is a computer-based method for the assessment of the intelligibility of dysarthric patients. A multi-user online version of MVP is now available. Aims: To describe the structure of…

In theories of spoken language production, the gestural code prescribing the movements of the speech organs is usually viewed as a linear string of holistic, encapsulated, hard-wired, phonetic plans, e.g., of the size of phonemes or syllables. Interactions between phonetic units on the surface of overt speech are commonly attributed to either the…

Patients with lesions of the left hemisphere often suffer from oral-facial apraxia, apraxia of speech, and aphasia. In these patients, visual features often play a critical role in speech and language therapy, when pictured lip shapes or the therapist's visible mouth movements are used to facilitate speech production and articulation. This demands…

Recent accounts of the pathomechanism underlying apraxia of speech (AOS) were based on the speech production model of Levelt, Roelofs, and Meyer, and Meyer (1999)1999. The apraxic impairment was localized to the phonetic encoding level where the model postulates a mental store of motor programs for high-frequency syllables. Varley and Whiteside…