Concurrent Validity Between Two Sound Sequencing Tasks Used to Identify Childhood Apraxia of Speech in School-Age Children

Abstract

Purpose To assess the concurrent validity of two tasks used to inform diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), this study evaluated the agreement between the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT) and the Maximum Repetition Rate of Trisyllables (MRR-Tri). Method A retrospective analysis was conducted with 80 children 7-16 years of age who were referred for treatment studies. All children had a speech sound disorder, and all completed both the SRT and the MRR-Tri. On each task, children were classified as meeting or not meeting the tool's threshold for CAS based on the sound sequencing errors demonstrated. Results The two tasks were in agreement for 47 participants (59% of the sample); both tasks classified 13 children as meeting the threshold for CAS and 34 children as not meeting the threshold for CAS. However, the two tasks disagreed on CAS classification for 33 children (41% of the sample). Overall, the MRR-Tri identified more children as having sound sequencing errors indicative of CAS (n = 39) than did the SRT (n = 20). Conclusions These two tasks of sound sequencing differ in the children they identify with CAS, possibly due to aspects of the underlying task requirements (e.g., time pressure). The SRT and the MRR-Tri should not be used in isolation to identify CAS but may be useful as part of a balanced CAS assessment battery that includes additional tasks that inform the nature of the impairment and that aid treatment planning. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14110280.

Figure 1.

Venn diagram depicting children identified as having childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) on the Maximum Repetition Rate of Trisyllables (MRR-Tri) and the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT). The intersection represents children identified with CAS on both tasks.

Figure 2.

Raw performance on the Maximum Repetition Rate of Trisyllables (MRR-Tri) and the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT). The cutoff for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) diagnosis on the SRT was four or more items with sound additions. The cutoff for CAS diagnosis on the Maximum Performance Tasks (MPT)/MRR-Tri was a score of 2.