The presence and extent of motor speech and grammatical language impairments are very heterogeneous in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a prevalent concomitant motor speech disorder in children with autism affecting imitation skills and impairing speech acquisition due to motor sequencing deficits. Children with CAS also exhibit procedural learning impairments (Iuzzini-Seigel, 2021). Ullman (2006) hypothesized in the ‘Procedural Deficit Hypothesis’ that procedural memory deficit underlies grammatical language impairments in ASD. This causes difficulty in formulating sentences on the basis of grammatical or word order sequencing rules. Therefore, children with ASD prefer to retrieve and use pre-learnt utterances stored as whole units in their semantic memory. Literature review suggests disruption of a common FOXP2 (Forkhead Box P2) gene in both CAS and developmental language impairment (Morgan, Fisher, Scheffer & Hildebrand, 2016). Evidence also suggests that the same gene FOXP2 underlies functioning of procedural memory system (Ullman et. al., 1997). From the review of literature it is hypothesized that procedural learning deficit is the plausible cause of grammatical language impairment and apraxia of speech in ASD. The potential implication of this review is that procedural memory training could enhance both speech motor planning/programming and grammar in children with ASD.
Procedural Deficit Hypothesis, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Childhood Apraxia of Speech
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