Word syllable duration for AOS (Bunker et al., 2024)

Purpose: Neurogenic speech and language disorders—such as acquired apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia with phonemic paraphasia (APP)—are often misdiagnosed due to similarities in clinical presentation. Word syllable duration (WSD)—a measure of average syllable length in multisyllabic words—serves as a proxy for speech rate, which is an important and arguably more objective clinical characteristic of AOS and APP. This study reports stability of WSD over time for speakers with AOS (and aphasia).Method: Twenty-nine participants with AOS and aphasia (11 women and 18 men, Mage = 53.5 years, SD = 13.3) repeated 30 multisyllabic words (of three-, four-, and five-syllable lengths) on three occasions across 4 weeks. WSDs were calculated for each word and then averaged across each list (i.e., word length), as well as across combined lists (i.e., all 30 words) to yield four WSDs for each participant at each time point. Stability over time was calculated using Friedman’s test for the group and using Spearman’s rho for the individual level. Effects of time and word length were examined using robust mixed-effects linear regression.Results: Friedman’s tests and correlations indicated no significant difference in WSDs across sampling occasions for each word length separately or combined. WSD correlated positively with AOS severity and negatively with intelligibility but was not correlated with aphasia severity. Regression analyses confirmed WSD to be stable over time, while WSD calculated from only five tokens (i.e., WSD-5) was less stable over time.Conclusions: Results indicate that WSD can be a stable measure over time, at the individual and group level, providing support for its use in diagnosis and/or as an outcome measure, both clinically and for research. In general, WSD outperformed WSD-5, suggesting that it may be better to calculate WSD from more than five tokens. Stability of WSD in other populations and suitability for differential diagnosis need to be determined. Currently, differentiating disorders by speaking rate, alone, is not recommended.Supplemental Material S1. Robust linear mixed-effects regression models without controlling for aphasia severity (WAB-R AQ) or AOS severity (ASRS 3.0).Bunker, L. D., Bailey, D. J., Poss, E., Mauszycki, S., & Wambaugh, J. L. (2024). Stability over time of word syllable duration for speakers with acquired apraxia of speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67(10S), 4038–4052. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00007Publisher Note: This article is part of the Special Issue: Select Papers From the 8th International Conference on Speech Motor Control.

目的：神经源性言语及语言障碍，如获得性构音障碍（AOS）及音位性错语症（APP），由于临床表现相似，常被误诊。单词音节时长（WSD）——多音节单词平均音节长度的衡量指标——作为语速的替代指标，而语速是AOS和APP的重要且相对客观的临床特征。本研究报告了AOS（及失语症）患者WSD随时间的变化稳定性。方法：29名AOS及失语症患者（女性11名，男性18名，平均年龄53.5岁，标准差13.3）在4周内三次重复30个多音节单词（三、四、五音节长度）。计算每个单词的WSD，然后按列表（即单词长度）以及合并列表（即所有30个单词）的平均值，得出每个参与者在每个时间点的四个WSD。时间稳定性通过Friedman检验对群体进行计算，通过Spearman相关系数对个体水平进行计算。使用稳健的混合效应线性回归分析时间及单词长度的影响。结果：Friedman检验和相关性表明，在单独或合并的每个单词长度上，WSD在采样场合之间没有显著差异。WSD与AOS严重程度呈正相关，与可理解性呈负相关，但与失语症严重程度无相关性。回归分析证实WSD随时间保持稳定，而仅从五个token（即WSD-5）计算出的WSD在时间上稳定性较差。结论：结果表明，WSD在个体和群体层面上可以作为一个随时间保持稳定的测量指标，为其在临床诊断及/或作为结果指标的运用提供了支持。总体而言，WSD优于WSD-5，这表明可能最好从超过五个token计算WSD。WSD在其他人群中的稳定性及适用于鉴别诊断的适宜性需要进一步确定。目前，仅通过说话速度来区分疾病并不被推荐。补充材料S1：未控制失语症严重程度（WAB-R AQ）或AOS严重程度（ASRS 3.0）的稳健线性混合效应回归模型。Bunker, L. D.，Bailey, D. J.，Poss, E.，Mauszycki, S.，& Wambaugh, J. L. (2024). 获得性构音障碍患者单词音节时长随时间的变化稳定性。言语、语言和听力研究杂志，67(10S)，4038–4052. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00007。出版者注：本文为特别专题：第八届国际言语运动控制会议精选论文之一。