ABSTRACT
The processes involved in word production are usually classied into a tripartite division of linguistic encoding, speech programming, and motor execution. The parallel division of acquired speech production disorders into those of aphasic, apraxic, or dysarthric origin mirror these processing phase distinctions. This chapter will explore conceptualizations of the processes involved in speech programming and their implications for the understanding and management of acquired apraxia of speech. This phase of encoding is usually viewed as postlinguistic, where the conceptual-semantic and phonological processing have been completed. The speaker has achieved an abstract phonological representation for an output. However abstract representations cannot drive the hardware of the speech production system. What is needed now is a process that converts the abstract representation into a neural code that can initiate the multiple movements of the articulatory system, all of which must be integrated with each other and precisely timed and targeted.
