Imitation and Naming in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (Pages 32-39)
Gila Tubul-Lavy
Ono Academic College, Israel
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12970/2311-1917.2015.03.01.5
Abstract: Imitation and object naming are the first steps in language acquisition. While in typical development, imitation is easier than naming, there is a lack of agreement about the role of imitation in language impairment in general, and in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), in particular. Hence, the aim of this study is to compare imitation and naming in CAS and to analyze the nature of errors according to the complexity of the word and across the three levels of the prosodic hierarchy: the segmental level, the syllabic level and the prosodic word level.
Sixteen children diagnosed with CAS (average age 3;11) participated in the study. The data, collected from each child in the course of eight weekly meetings, are drawn from naming and imitating single words. The results indicate that imitation seems to be an easier task than naming; both tasks are more difficult as the words get longer. Fewer errors are seen on the prosodic level, while most of the errors occur on the segmental and syllabic levels.
Keywords: Childhood apraxia of speech, imitation, naming, segmental level, syllabic level, prosodic level. Read more