Syllabic Structures Inventory for Francophone Children: A Tool for Intervention Planning in Childhood Apraxia of Speech

The purpose of this article is to present a new tool that we designed to comprehensively test the production of various syllable structures in children with childhood apraxia of speech. The tool described in this study is the Syllabic Structures Inventory for Francophone Children [Inventaire des structures syllabiques chez l'enfant francophone]. The tool includes more than 190 words that allow for specific and exhaustive assessment of different syllable structures in French. The purpose of the tool is to support individualized intervention planning for French-speaking children with childhood apraxia of speech aged 3 to 6 years. We conducted a study to describe the selection process of the items included in the tool as it needed to include a large variety of syllable structures, recognizable images needed to accompany all target words, and selected words needed to correspond to 3- to 6-years-olds' expected level of language development. First, an expert committee of speech language pathologists provided feedback on the tool (iconographic representativeness and choice of words). We then administered the tool to 74 typically developing children aged 3 to 6 years to determine the proportion of recognized words. Overall, the results show that the inventory's target words correspond to the vocabulary level of young children. This innovative tool is thus adequate for planning individualized treatment for 3- to 6-years-olds with childhood apraxia of speech.