Treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Summary

The study will test two modifications to speech therapy for 40 school-age children with childhood apraxia of speech to determine how to improve treatment outcomes. The study will compare treatment that includes real-time visual feedback of the tongue during speech using ultrasound vs traditional therapy that does not include ultrasound visual feedback. Additionally, some children will be treated with a traditional schedule of 2 sessions per week, whereas others will be provided with treatment that begins with intensive training (10 hours of therapy in one week) and progresses to a more distributed treatment schedule.

Conditions

• Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Speech Motor Chaining without Biofeedback

These procedures target sound sequences (consonant-vowel, consonant-consonant, or vowel-consonant). Sessions begin with Pre-practice to elicit the target sounds, with verbal cueing and shaping strategies. The Practice component then includes chaining that is response-contingent. Participants practice in blocks of 6 consecutive trials beginning at the syllable level. If 5/6 are correct, the participant advances to monosyllabic word practice, then multisyllabic word practice, phrase practice, and sentence practice (with the target syllable embedded within each level of complexity). If fewer than 5/6 trials are correct, a different syllable with the target sound pattern is practiced next. Verbal feedback is faded from 5 of 6 trials at the syllable level to only 3 of 6 trials at the sentence level. For more description, see http://speechproductionlab.syr.edu/Resources%20for%20Researchers.html

BEHAVIORAL

Biofeedback

Real-time images of the tongue are made available using ultrasound placed beneath the chin. Participants practice speech movements and can be cued to modify their tongue shape or position to achieve clearer speech. Practice structure is similar to the Speech Motor Chaining procedures, but with the addition of a visual reference.

BEHAVIORAL

Distributed Practice

2 sessions per week for 10 weeks

BEHAVIORAL

Massed --> Distributed Practice

Week 1: 10 hours of treatment Week 2: 3 hours of treatment Week 3: 3 hours of treatment Week 4: 2 hours of treatment Week 5: 2 hours of treatment

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

  collaborator NIH

• Syracuse University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

9 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-08-01

Primary Completion

2022-05-09

Completion

2022-06-07

Countries

• United States

Study Locations