Browsing by Author "Alanko, Nina"

Aims: There can be many speech sound errors in the speech of a person with verbal apraxia. The speaker with verbal apraxia usually detects the speech sound errors he/she makes and tries to correct them. Those corrections do not always succeed and, therefore, those speakers may need help. There are only few studies of speech sound errors and corrections with speakers who have verbal apraxia. This study provides information about speech sound errors in the speech of a person with verbal apraxia and about the correction of the speech sound errors. Method: This study examined the sound errors of a 45-year-old Matti and the correction of those sound errors. The corrections were made by Matti or Maija, a student in logopedics. Matti was diagnosed with aphasia and verbal apraxia. The data consisted of five videotaped speech therapy sessions in which Matti and Maija conducted few different speech therapy exercises. For the analysis, videotaped data were transcribed in detail. Speech sound errors and the correction of those errors were searched from the transcription. Speech sound errors were analysed by using the sound system of the Finnish language. The corrections of the speech sound errors were analysed by using conversation analysis. Results and suggestions for future research: There were many different speech sound errors in Matti's speech, for example: substitutions, assimilations, omissions, additions and metatheses. The number of the different speech sound errors remained relatively similar in different exercises in the same therapy session. In different therapy sessions the number in different therapy exercises varied some amount. The number of the speech sound errors Matti made diminished during the therapy period. Matti and Maija made different kind of corrections focused on Matti's speech sound errors. Matti usually tried to self-correct his speech. When it did not work he asked for help by looking at Maija, by asking questions or by making a gesture. Sometimes Maija corrected Matti's speech by saying the difficult word or phrase. In future it would be interesting to do more research on the construction of Matti's corrections and the success of Matti's self-corrections.