TY - JOUR
T1 - Autism-centered therapy for childhood apraxia of speech (Act4cas)
T2 - A single-case experimental design study
AU - Beiting, Molly
AU - Maas, Edwin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by a First Summers Research Grant from Temple University to the first author. We thank our undergraduate research assistants, Kyra Skoog, Kaylee Stampone, and Miranda Corrigan, for their work in the collection and analysis of these data. We thank Susan Caspari for providing the independent diagnoses for the children. We are deeply grateful for the effort of the dedicated families who committed significant amounts of their time to participate in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Purpose: A subset of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has speech sound disorders, including childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). To date, virtually all speech treatment studies consider ASD an exclusionary criterion, resulting in little scientific evidence for treatment of CAS for children who also have ASD. This study proposes and tests a novel approach, Autism-Centered Therapy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (ACT4CAS), as a theoretically and clinically informed speech treatment option for this population. Method: Using a multiple-baseline design within and across participants, three children with co-occurring ASD and CAS received 11–18 treatment sessions. Treatment targets were individually designed and matched with untreated control words. Probes were administered at the start of each session to assess speech production accuracy perceptually. Changes in production accuracy were examined through visual inspection and quantified with effect sizes. Results: Findings were mixed, with one child showing significant gains for half of the treated targets at follow-up and two children showing no clear improvement. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests potentially positive treatment effects for ACT4CAS when implemented as intended, although treatment intensity and disorder severity likely influence treatment outcome. Replication and comparison of ACT4CAS to other speech treatments is needed.
AB - Purpose: A subset of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has speech sound disorders, including childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). To date, virtually all speech treatment studies consider ASD an exclusionary criterion, resulting in little scientific evidence for treatment of CAS for children who also have ASD. This study proposes and tests a novel approach, Autism-Centered Therapy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (ACT4CAS), as a theoretically and clinically informed speech treatment option for this population. Method: Using a multiple-baseline design within and across participants, three children with co-occurring ASD and CAS received 11–18 treatment sessions. Treatment targets were individually designed and matched with untreated control words. Probes were administered at the start of each session to assess speech production accuracy perceptually. Changes in production accuracy were examined through visual inspection and quantified with effect sizes. Results: Findings were mixed, with one child showing significant gains for half of the treated targets at follow-up and two children showing no clear improvement. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests potentially positive treatment effects for ACT4CAS when implemented as intended, although treatment intensity and disorder severity likely influence treatment outcome. Replication and comparison of ACT4CAS to other speech treatments is needed.
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U2 - 10.1044/2020_AJSLP-20-00131
DO - 10.1044/2020_AJSLP-20-00131
M3 - Article
C2 - 33684309
AN - SCOPUS:85108742203
SN - 1058-0360
VL - 30
SP - 1525
EP - 1541
JO - American journal of speech-language pathology
JF - American journal of speech-language pathology
IS - 3s
ER -