What is dysprosody and how is it evaluated in AOS?

• A. Dysprosody is abnormal prosody; evaluated by analyzing rhythm, stress, and intonation across connected speech.
• B. Dysprosody refers to impaired lexical access.
• C. Dysprosody is increased speech rate.
• D. Dysprosody is reduced volume only.

Answer: (A)

Dysprosody refers to abnormal prosody—how the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech are disrupted. In apraxia of speech this shows up as irregular timing, uneven or inconsistent stress, and unusual pitch contours across connected speech. To evaluate it, clinicians listen to and analyze connected speech samples (spontaneous speech or reading), noting how syllables are timed, where emphasis falls, and how the intonation or melody of speech changes across phrases. They may also use acoustic measures of duration, pause placement, pitch range, and loudness to support perceptual judgments. Dysprosody focuses on prosodic structure, not lexical access problems, not merely faster speech, and not reduced volume alone, which are different features.