The Motor Speech Checklist: Your New Go-To Tool for Speech-Motor Insight

I’m thrilled to share a practical tool from our recent research publication in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. In our article with Aravind Namasivayam, Leo Li-Han, Willy Wong and Pascal Van Lieshout, we explored how articulatory/motor-speech control limitations (jaw, lips, tongue) are systematically linked to phonological error patterns in children with speech-sound disorders. 

What I want you to walk away with today is: This isn’t just research-for-the-shelf. It’s a clinical tool you can use right now to screen, interpret, and plan therapy with a motor-speech lens.

What is the Motor Speech Checklist?

In the study, we used a checklist itemised under key domains of speech motor control: jaw control, labial-facial control, integration of jaw and lips, lingual control, multi-plane movements, and broader general speech production characteristics. 

Here are a few of the indicator items:

• Jaw control: e.g., inadequate jaw opening, inability to grade jaw opening for mid-height vowels, lateral/anterior jaw sliding.
  
  
• Labial-facial control: e.g., inadequate bilabial contact for /p, b, m/, non-independent bilabial movement from the jaw, inadequate lip rounding for /o/ and /u/.
  
  
• Lingual control: e.g., non-independent tongue-tip elevation from the jaw for /t, d, n/, inaccurate posterior tongue movement for /k, g/.
  
  
• Multi-plane & general speech production: e.g., limited variety of speech motor movements (child uses jaw as primary articulator), difficulty maintaining integrity of longer utterances.
  
  

In the research, children’s total checklist score was used to assess speech motor limitation of preschool children with speech sound disorder. 

Why This Matters for Our Work Together

Because at DrMooreSpeech, we don’t just address “which sounds” — we ask how the child’s speech-motor system is functioning. This checklist gives us a structured, research-validated way to identify motor speech limitations and use that data to make motor-informed clinical decisions.

🎯 Clinical Implications

• Screening: If a child comes in with cluster reduction, final consonant deletion, or frequent stopping, running the checklist helps you ask: “Are there observable motor-control constraints?”
  
  
• Diagnosis & differential pathways: Why are we seeing these errors? The checklist helps dive deeper into that question.
  
  
• Treatment Planning: If jaw control or tongue-jaw dissociation are flagged, therapy can include movement-based targets (jaw stability, tongue dissociation).
  
  
• Parent Communication: Sharing a simplified version of this checklist with families helps them understand that the speech-motor system matters — not just “speech sound acquisition” but how those sounds are made.
  
  
• Outcome Monitoring: Tracking change in the checklist items over time gives you an additional dimension of progress beyond percent consonants correct or error-pattern reduction.
  
  

How You Can Download & Use It Right Now

I’ve created a fill­able version of the Motor Speech Checklist — designed for SLPs, schools, and clinics who want to integrate this motor-speech lens.

📥 Download here: Free Fillable Motor Speech Checklist

Use it in your assessment packet:

1. Print or use digitally during your first evaluation.
   
   
2. Score each item (yes/no or 0/1) as you observe speech motor behaviours during spontaneous speech, naming, probe words, or ultrasound (if available).
   
   
3. Highlight items flagged (e.g., 14.1 Lip-Face, 16.2 Lingual posterior movement) and link them to error patterns (e.g., FCD, cluster reduction) as per our study.
   
   
4. Use the findings to craft your therapy plan: target both motor movement (jaw/lip/tongue) and phonological contrasts accordingly.
   
   

A Few Practical Tips from Me

• Don’t just check + move on. When you flag an item (e.g., “Jaw sliding laterally”), probe further. Try various contexts such as CV, CVC, CVCV etc. This will show you the extent of the motor breakdown when syllable complexity increases. 
  
  
• Align therapy target complexity with motor capacity. If jaw stability is poor, introducing multisyllabic clusters may over-tax the system. Start with simpler motor demands, build strength, then layer phonological contrast.
  
  
• Use the checklist as a tool to share with families: “Here’s what we observed. This gives us a roadmap for building the movement foundation so that when we work on the sounds, they stick.”
  
  
• Re-evaluate at intervals. Every 6-8 weeks, re-score the checklist. Improvement in motor items often precedes major jumps in phonological accuracy.

Final Thoughts

I know motor speech may be out of the comfort zone for many SLPs. We are here to break down the research, create usable clinical tools, and help you provide the most efficient assessment and intervention. 

By widely sharing this Motor Speech Checklist, I hope more clinicians will ground their assessments in observable motor-speech data, not just auditory transcription and error-pattern counts. It can help shift the paradigm toward more precise, motor-aware intervention — something I’ve always believed is central to DrMooreSpeech’s mission.

➡️ Don’t wait — grab the free fillable checklist today, integrate it into your next eval, and let’s build more clarity, movement, and confidence in the kids we serve.