A comparison of two treatments for childhood apraxia of speech: methods and treatment protocol for a parallel group randomised control trial Full Text
BMC Pediatrics, 08/20/2012
Murray E et al. – This will be the first randomised control trial to test treatment for CAS. It will be valuable for clinical decision–making and providing evidence–based services for children with CAS.
Methods- A parallel group, fixed size randomised control trial will be conducted in Sydney, Australia to determine the efficacy of two treatments for Childhood Apraxia of Speech: 1) Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment and the 2) Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme - Third edition.
- Eligible children will be English speaking, aged 4-12 years with a diagnosis of suspected CAS, normal or adjusted hearing and vision, and no comprehension difficulties or other developmental diagnoses.
- At least 20 children will be randomised to receive one of the two treatments in parallel: Treatments will be delivered by trained and supervised speech pathology clinicians using operationalised manuals.
- Treatment will be administered in 1-hour sessions, 4 times per week for 3 weeks.
- The primary outcomes are speech sound and prosodic accuracy on a customised 292 item probe and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology inconsistency subtest administered prior to treatment and 1 week, 1 month and 4 months post-treatment.
- Treatment effects at 1 week post will be similar for both treatments.
- Maintenance of treatment effects at 1 and 4 months post will be greater for Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment than Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme treatment.
- Generalisation of treatment effects to untrained related speech behaviours will be greater for Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment than Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme treatment.
