Which characteristic is associated with apraxia of speech?

• A. Distortions in segmental transitions with extended durations between sounds
• B. Complete loss of speech
• C. Uniform, undistorted articulation
• D. Normal coarticulation with no timing changes

Answer: (A)

Apraxia of speech comes from a disruption in the motor planning and programming of speech movements, so the sequence of articulatory movements is hard to plan and execute smoothly. This shows up most clearly as distortions that occur at the connecting points between sounds, with longer-than-normal gaps as the speaker hesitates to move from one segment to the next. That combination—unsteady transitions between phonemes and extended durations—captures the core difficulty of AOS: the planning stage struggles with sequencing the articulators, producing imperfect transitions rather than a simple weakness or loss of voice.

So, distorted transitions with prolonged gaps between sounds is the hallmark you’d expect to hear in apraxia of speech. The other descriptions describe situations not typical of AOS—complete loss of speech would be more like mutism or severe impairment, uniform, undistorted articulation would imply normal motor control, and normal coarticulation with no timing changes would indicate no sequencing problem at all.