What characterizes apraxia of speech?

Apraxia of speech is characterized as a motor speech disorder that arises from difficulty in planning and coordinating the movements necessary for speech, rather than from any weakness or paralysis of the articulators. Individuals with apraxia can have intact comprehension skills and may not experience any general loss of linguistic abilities; however, their challenges are specifically related to the execution of speech movements. This means they understand what they want to say but struggle to produce the speech sounds correctly and in the right sequence, leading to inconsistent articulation errors.

The reason this option stands out is that apraxia specifically involves the neural processes that govern the motor control of speech, which can exist independently of having weak muscles. It emphasizes the distinction between conceptualizing speech and the physical enactment of speech, which is central to understanding apraxia of speech.