What role do prosodic disturbances play in AOS?

• A. Abnormal rhythm, stress patterns, and pausing contribute to reduced intelligibility.
• B. Prosody does not affect intelligibility in AOS.
• C. Prosody is always normal in AOS.
• D. Prosodic disturbances are the sole cause of language comprehension deficits.

Answer: (B)

Prosody—the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech—depends on precise timing of articulatory movements. In apraxia of speech, the planning and sequencing of those movements is disrupted, which often disturbs prosodic timing. You may see irregular rhythm, inconsistent or inappropriate stress, and pauses that break the flow of speech. These prosodic distortions make connected speech harder to understand, even when individual sounds are produced with some accuracy, because listeners rely on prosody to parse meaning and emphasis.

So, statements that prosody does not affect intelligibility or that it is always normal don’t fit how AOS typically presents. Also, attributing language comprehension deficits to prosody alone misses that AOS primarily affects speech production, not general language understanding.