How does producing longer utterances typically differ in AOS?

• A. Greater error rate and longer pauses with longer utterances
• B. Greater error rate with shorter utterances
• C. Fewer errors with longer utterances
• D. No change in error rate with utterance length

Answer: (D)

In apraxia of speech, the challenge is in planning and sequencing the motor movements needed for speech, not simply in producing a lot of sound. Producing longer utterances doesn’t inherently raise the proportion of errors per unit of speech. The motor planning disruption affects the sequencing across the utterance in a way that can produce errors throughout, but the rate of those errors tends to stay about the same as you lengthen the utterance. What often changes with longer speech is the need for more planning time, leading to more hesitations or pauses and slower overall rate, rather than a higher error rate per segment.