Comparison of Speech Motor Function, Articulation, and Phonological Characteristics of Children with and without Palatine Tonsil Hypertrophy

Objectives: This study aims to examine the underlying difficulties that children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) have in their speech process by comparing their speech-motor Program/Programming abilities to those of children with articulatory and phonological disorders (APD) and typically-developing (TD) children. Methods: Nine children with CAS, 15 children with APD, and 15 TD children participated in this study. We compared the reaction time (RT) and the percentage of correct responses in immediate/delayed word/nonword repetition tasks among the three groups. Results: The CAS group showed significantly slower RT in all tasks than the other groups. While the APD and TD groups showed faster immediate reaction time (IRT) than delayed reaction time (DRT) in both the word and nonword tasks, the CAS group showed faster DRT than IRT in the non-word task. The CAS group showed a significantly lower percentage of correct responses than the APD and TD groups in the word task, and a significantly lower percentage of correct responses than the TD group in the non-word task. Conclusion: The speech-motor Program/Programming ability of the CAS group was lower than the other groups. This study suggests that groups of CAS, APD, and TD can be distinguished from each other through word and non-word IRT as well as the percentage of correct responses from a word task.

unclassified

Speech-Motor Program/Programming in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Children with Articulatory and Phonological Disorders and Typically Developing Children

Kim¹,

Choi²,

Ha³

2015

Comparison of Speech Motor Function, Articulation, and Phonological Characteristics of Children with and without Palatine Tonsil Hypertrophy: A Follow-Up 7 Months after Tonsillectomy

Song¹

2016

In a previous study, the diadochokinesis (DDK) and the percentage of consonants correct (PCC) of children with palatine tonsil hypertrophy (TH) were significantly lower than those of typically developing children (TD), and the number of children who produced phonological processes (PP) was significantly higher in TH than in TD. And there were no significant changes in PCC and PP at 6 weeks after tonsillectomy. So, the purpose of this study was to compare the values (DDK, PCC, PP) in children 7 months after tonsillectomy (AT) and TD. Methods: Twenty-seven AT and 29 TD were measured for DDK and the Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children (APAC). An independent t-test and χ 2-test were conducted to determine whether there were significant differences between the groups. Three children who had lower PCC than their peer group were given individual speech therapy. Results: There were no significant differences in DDK, PCC, and PP between AT and TD. Except for one child, the children improved in PCC and PP after speech therapy. Conclusion: The results suggested that AT can catch up with TD. But there were individual differences in improvement of PCC and PP at 7 months after tonsillectomy and after speech therapy. It is necessary for a follow-up study to examine the timing of tonsillectomy and necessity of speech therapy after tonsillectomy.

Speech Mechanism Screening Test for Children: An Evaluation of Performance in 3- to 12-Year-Old Normal Developing Children

Kim¹,

Shin²,

Song³

2018

The purpose of this study was to establish standardized scores for the Speech Mechanism Screening Test for Children (SMST-C). Methods: Two hundred thirty-six normal developing children (111 boys and 125 girls) from 3 to 12 years of age were included in the study. They were examined with the SMST-C, which yields a total score from three subsystems: structure/function, phonation/voice/articulation, and diadochokinesis (DDK)/maximum phonation time (MPT)/speech rate/DDK rate. DDK rate consists of alternative motion rates (AMR) of 5 syllables (/pʌ/, /tʌ/, /kʌ/, /lʌ/, and /kʌŋ/) and sequential motion rate (SMR) of /pʌtʌkʌ/. Results: The total score of SMST-C was not significantly different according to age or gender. MPT and speech rate significantly increased with age. DDK rates in all syllables for AMR and SMR also increased with age. In addition, AMR of /tʌ/ (alveolar sound) was the fastest syllable among all mono-syllables and AMR of /kʌŋ/ (velar sound) was the slowest. Conclusion: The results of this study provided normative data for speech mechanisms of children using SMST-C. SMST-C would be helpful for speech-language pathologists and other related professionals to screen for children with abnormal speech mechanisms.