Can articulatory behavior in motor speechdisorders be accounted for by theories of normal speech production?

This paper deals with the relationship of speech production theoriesto articulatory behavior in motor speech disorders. The ability of translation and gesture theories to account for some selected facts of motor speech disorders is first considered, followed by a report of a small-scale experiment designed to demonstrate a specific application of certain aspects of gesture theory to articulatory variability in apraxia of speech. The results of this experiment seem to indicate that a gesture perspective on the speech production deficit in motor speech disorders may yield important insights for both normal and disordered speech production.