Issues Pertaining to “Apraxia of Speech”

—Terminology, Symptomatology, and Intervention Strategies—

Abstract

In this paper, several issues concerning terminology, symptomatology, and intervention strategies relating to “apraxia of speech” were pointed out. First, in order to inspect the validity of including this symptom under apraxia, a study was made of inconstancy in speech errors and voluntary/involuntary dissociation in speech fluency in cases with this symptom, which Darley et al. regard as evidence that this symptom is a type of apraxia. The findings suggested, however, that it is not valid to interpret this symptom as a subtype of apraxia. Second, the validity of using the term “substitution”, which also is used in reference to a type of speech error shown by cases with phonological retrieval disorders, as a type of speech error shown by cases with this symptom was discussed. Finally, concepts concerning intervention strategies for this symptom were demonstrated, referring to the dichotomy by Square et al. i.e., namingly, microstructural and macrostructural approaches.