{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T13:30:39Z","timestamp":1787923839889,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787875200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Purpose: Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder characterized by deficits in speech planning and programming. However, current diagnostic frameworks have been developed primarily from studies of English-speaking children, raising questions regarding their applicability to other languages. This study examined the common and diagnostic speech characteristics of Hebrew-speaking children with CAS as perceived by Israeli speech\u2013language pathologists (SLPs). Method: Two hundred Israeli SLPs with experience diagnosing and\/or treating children with CAS completed an online questionnaire. Participants rated 26 speech characteristics on 7-point scales reflecting their perceived frequency and diagnostic specificity in Hebrew-speaking children with CAS. Descriptive analyses included mean ratings and the percentage of clinicians endorsing each characteristic. Results: Increased difficulty with multisyllabic words (M = 6.37) and inconsistent errors (M = 6.32) received the highest frequency ratings and were endorsed by 87.0% and 84.0% of clinicians, respectively, as common characteristics of CAS. Inconsistent errors received the highest diagnostic specificity rating (M = 6.12), followed by groping movements (M = 5.73) and difficulty sequencing syllables (M = 5.48). Prosodic features, including lexical stress errors (M = 3.72) and equal stress patterns (M = 3.73), received ratings at or below the midpoint of the scale and were endorsed by fewer than 20% of clinicians as common characteristics of CAS. Breathy voice (M = 3.11) and consistent hypernasality (M = 2.79), two control characteristics not typically associated with CAS, received the lowest ratings. Conclusions: Israeli SLPs identified syllable sequencing difficulties and inconsistency as the most salient and diagnostically informative characteristics of CAS in Hebrew-speaking children. In contrast, prosodic features, particularly lexical stress errors, were perceived as less common and less central to diagnosis than suggested by English-based diagnostic frameworks. These findings suggest that the clinical manifestation of CAS may be influenced by language-specific phonological and prosodic properties and underscore the need for direct investigation of CAS characteristics in Hebrew-speaking children.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13091155","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T12:27:46Z","timestamp":1787920066000},"page":"1155","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Speech Characteristics of Childhood Apraxia of Speech in Hebrew-Speaking Children"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Natalie","family":"Watter","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Disorders, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4452-2196","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Edwin","family":"Maas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Osnat","family":"Segal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Disorders, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"},{"name":"Department of Communication Disorders, Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2007). 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