Apraxia of Speech in a Bilingual Speaker: Perceptual Characteristics and Generalisation of non-language Specific Treatment

Abstract

Speech production in a second (or third) language in the case of late bilingualism (or multilingualism) is probably motorically more complex than in the first language and greater demands are placed on the speech sensorimotor control system. In the case of defective speech motor planning due to brain damage, this will be particularly true, but to date no studies have been done on bilingual apraxia of speech. In this study the perceptual speech characteristics of a first-language Afrikaans-speaking apraxic person were studied in both Afrikaans and English and also generalisation of improvement after the application of non-language specific treatment aimed at improving speech motor planning abilities. The results indicated that similar perceptual characteristics occurred in both languages, but the problem in the second language was more severe. Improvement occurred in both languages indicating generalisation to the second language. The theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.