The effects of sentence completion on word production for individuals with acquired apraxia of speech

Background literature on intervention for apraxia of speech (AOS) fails to show evidence of robust efficacy for any specific approach. There is anecdotal evidence that the use of sentence completion may facilitate production of words in individuals with AOS. The purpose of the current investigation was to determine the effectiveness of a sentence completion task for eliciting the correct and accurate production of words by individuals with AOS.
Following standardized testing, ten participants with AOS and ten neurotypical individuals were asked to produce bisyllabic words in two conditions: a repetition condition and a sentence completion condition. Each word produced by participants was given one score to reflect whether the word was correct or not and another score to reflect the accuracy of production. Response times were also measured for each production. Participants with AOS produced significantly more correct target words in the sentence completion condition than the repetition condition. Participants with AOS also produced words with significantly higher articulation accuracy in the sentence completion condition than the repetition condition. Individuals with AOS did not show a significant difference in response times between the two conditions. Interestingly, neurotypical individuals demonstrated significantly shorter response times for the repetition condition. Results from this study demonstrated that sentence completion facilitated production of words for individuals with AOS. Individuals with severe deficits for producing speech were able to more readily produce words during a sentence completion task. Using sentence completion to elicit the production of words may be beneficial as a therapeutic technique. Future research applying sentence completion and theories of motor learning may increase the number of words that individuals with AOS can produce independently.