Despite evidence regarding the impacts of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) and the importance of early intervention, there are limited evidence-based treatments available for toddlers at risk of CAS. A small number of treatments for at-risk toddlers have been developed (“Babble Boot Camp”: Peter et al., 2019, 2021; “Let’s Start Talking”: Hodge and Gaines, 2017; “Wee Words”: Kiesewalter et al., 2017), however, with the exception of Wee Words, these do not specifically target very young children without specific genetic conditions.
Our objectives include examining the underlying best-practice principles for a toddler focused intervention for children identified as at risk of CAS, and, to then describe an intervention program that incorporates these principles.
Our methods involved a narrative review of the literature to generate a set of theoretical principles to inform an early intervention for toddlers at risk of CAS. These key principles were synthesised to develop a preliminary Speech Motor Learning for Toddlers (SMoLT) program which we will describe.
The results of our review reveal a set of ten theoretically informed principles. These principles relate to the unique needs of a toddler population as well as children with underlying speech motor difficulties. For each principle, clinical experiences and lessons learned from a toddler case study will be shared.
In conclusion, our presentation underscores the importance of early intervention for toddlers at risk of CAS. It provides clinicians with a set of useable theoretical principles, with case illustrations, to inform their practice when working with this population.

1. Have a greater awareness of the importance of early intervention for toddlers at risk of CAS
2. List at least 4 principles identified within existing research as important for early intervention for toddlers at-risk of CAS
3. Provide a practical example of how to apply each of these 4 principles when providing intervention to a toddler at-risk of CAS

Objectives: The clinical utility of polysyllabic words to differentially diagnose speech sound disorders has risen in our collective consciousness. Word complexity, a concept more broadly defined than word length, may provide further insight into the impact of word selection on accuracy. This presentation will examine the concept of word complexity, and the impact of word complexity on accuracy, in a sample of German-speaking children.
Methods: A word complexity measure, grounded in the concept first described as a independent method of analysis by Stoel-Gammon (2010), was developed and tested on the speech samples of 26 children with SSD (aged 3;0 – 6;9) and 32 children with typically-developing speech and language (aged 2;3-9;2) who completed the PLAKSS-II. Data were utilized from the Fox-Boyer & Neumann/Fox-Boyer databases stored in PhonBank; data were analysed using Phon (Hedlund & Rose, 2020). Three complexity measures were tested and the optimally-defined measure was identified. The frequency of five phonological processes by word length (monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic words) and word complexity (least and most complex) were analysed. Processes were: (1) stopping of affricates and fricatives, (2) deaffrication, (3) fronting, and (4) glottal replacement, and (5) cluster reduction.
Results: The optimum Word Complexity Measure (WCM-DEU) included consideration of word-medial coda, 2- and 3-element clusters, word length, stress, and later-developing consonants. A comparison with the proposed WCM-English (Stoel-Gammon, 2010) will be presented. Children with speech sound disorder had a higher number of phonological processes and these occurred across all word lengths and complexity levels.
Conclusions: Clinical considerations for speech sampling to identify children with expected/unexpected speech production errors and the sampling effects that require consideration will be discussed.

1. Cross-linguistic research in speech sound disorders can provide insight into new areas of investigation for English
2. Word complexity can be defined and measured. Different definitions of "word complexity" exist and should be tested.
3. It is meaningful to consider the word complexity of words within a target speech sample when analysing the expected and unexpected speech errors of children.

Purpose: Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) and Stuttering are complex, motor speech disorders both presenting with disrupted speech fluency. Despite such similarities, discussion about an overlapping relationship is scant in current literature. With anecdotal reports of clinicians confusing CAS and stuttering symptoms in some children (Murray et al., 2015),
this lack of literature poses challenges for accurate, timely diagnosis and therapeutic decision-making, necessitating investigation into the co-occurrence of stuttering with CAS.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on secondary data of 53 eligible participants (3-14 years) from previous CAS treatment studies. Inter and intra-rater reliability was conducted on 10% of samples 2 weeks after initial rating. Descriptive analysis was used to summarise participant variables (demographic, speech, fluency). Spearman’s correlations and
Chi-square tests were conducted to determine the relationship between fluency and other
variables (p < 0.1).
Results: Of the 53 participants, (boys [n=41; girls [n=12]) which represents the apraxic population. The mean number of syllables stuttered = 2.7 (SD=4.2), mean percent syllables stuttered = 0.7% (SD=1.2%) and mean severity rating = 0.9 (SD=0.9). Thirty-four children (64.2%) had some stuttering.
The most common feature was repeated movements [initial syllable repetition (91.2%), phrase repetition (26.5%), monosyllabic whole word repetitions (29.4%)], with a small proportion of fixed postures with audible airflow (5.9%). No statistically significant relationship between fluency measures and other variables was present. The presentation will discuss treatment options.
Conclusion: Stuttering can occur in CAS children, most commonly as very mild stuttering and a small proportion of clinically significant stuttering. Results suggest a higher stuttering prevalence in the CAS population compared to the general population. No predictors of fluency in children with CAS were identified.

1. Children with CAS may stutter
2. Stuttering onset in children with CAS may be delayed in comparison to typically developing children who stutter
3. A number of current interventions can be adapted to address both CAS and stuttering