What is it about?
This is a data-driven study designed to identify which speech and/or language measures best predict an expert diagnosis of apraxia of speech after single left hemisphere stroke. We tested 72 adults on a range of clinical measures and, using sophisticated predictive modelling, we found just two measures were needed to arrive at the same diagnosis as the experts in 93% cases - (1) a modified score from the Apraxia Battery for Adults - 2 Words of Increasing Length subtest (Dabul, 2000) and (2) the pairwise variability index that measures lexical stress on words with weak-strong stress (e.g. banana, potato).
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Why is it important?
This is perhaps the first relatively large-scale study that has potential to move the field beyond expert diagnosis to a reliable and easy to administer diagnostic method for determining presence of acquired apraxia of speech in individuals with or without concomitant stroke-related aphasia.
Perspectives
* We anticipate that this method will allow consistent and reliable reporting of apraxia of speech in research participants with stroke, and likely also for those with primary progressive aphasia / AOS. * We provide a simple diagnostic method for clinicians at any level of expertise. * The article provides detailed instructions and demonstration of the two measures. * We are excited to see this study in print, after 4 years of hard work.
Prof Kirrie J Ballard
University of Sydney
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A predictive model for diagnosing stroke-related apraxia of speech, Neuropsychologia, January 2016, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.010.
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