Apraxia of speech (AOS) and specific reading disability in elementary grade students

Allinder, Aman, Catts, Vellutino, and Godfrey have studied students with Specific Reading Disability (SRD), examining various theories related to the cause of reading failure in children who are otherwise academically and intellectually capable. Blachman and Shefelbine identified prevalent patterns of reading failure that appear after second or third grade, when reliance on sight vocabulary declines and reliance on phonetic decoding increases. The purpose of this research study was to review theories of reading failure and evaluate oral-motor ability (also referred to as Apraxia of Speech (AOS), Verbal Apraxia, Dyspraxia, Speech Apraxia, Phonetic Disintegration and Aphemia), in relationship to the etiology of specific reading failure. This research study compared reading disabled students with students displaying normal reading achievement in grades 1--6 and normal learning kindergarteners to determine if Apraxia of Speech is related to the ability to master phonetic reading skills. The results of the research study confirmed a statistically significant correlation between the praxia ability of students from kindergarten to 6th grade and their ability to master phonetic reading skills.