Purpose: The aim of this study was to pilot the efficacy of rapid syllable transition (ReST) treatment when provided once per week for a 50-min treatment session for 12 weeks with five children with childhood apraxia of speech. Of central importance was the children's retention and generalization of gains from treatment as indicators of speech…

Purpose: This study evaluates the initial efficacy of Chaining SPeech Lessons in Intensive Ten-minute Sessions (SPLITS), an alternative service delivery model for the Speech Motor Chaining treatment approach. We hypothesized that Chaining SPLITS would result in improvements in /[Voiced alveolar approximant]/ accuracy on syllables and untrained…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe changes in speech intelligibility and interrater and intrarater reliability of naive listeners' ratings of words produced by young children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) over a period of motor-based intervention (dynamic temporal and tactile cueing [DTTC]). Method: A total of 120…

Purpose: Dysarthria is common among children with cerebral palsy (CP) and results in poor speech intelligibility and subsequently low communicative participation. Neuroplasticity evidence suggests that adherence to principles of motor learning (PML) improves motor speech intervention outcomes. Motor speech interventions aim to improve speech…

Purpose: This study examined speech breathing during two connected speech tasks in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing (TD) peers. Understanding how the respiratory system supports speech production during various speech tasks can help researchers construct appropriate models of speech production and clinicians remediate…

Purpose: Rhythm is one procedural mechanism that underlies language and motor skill acquisition and has been implicated in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The purpose of this study is to investigate manual rhythmic sequencing skills in children with a history of or current CAS (hx/CAS) compared to children with typical development…

Purpose: Speech motor skill is refined over the course of practice, which is commonly reflected by increased accuracy and consistency. This research examined the relationship between auditory-perceptual ratings of word accuracy and measures of speech motor timing and variability at pre- and posttreatment in children with childhood apraxia of…

Background: Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) form a heterogeneous group, with respect to severity, etiology, proximal causes, speech error characteristics, and response to treatment. Infants develop speech and language in interaction with neurological maturation and general perceptual, motoric, and cognitive skills in a social-emotional…

Background: 'Speech sound disorder' is an umbrella term that encompasses dysarthria, articulation disorders, childhood apraxia of speech and phonological disorders. However, differential diagnosis between these disorders is a persistent challenge in speech pathology, as many diagnostic procedures use symptom clusters instead of identifying an…

Purpose: While there has been mounting research centered on the diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), little has focused on differentiating CAS from pediatric dysarthria. Because CAS and dysarthria share overlapping speech symptoms and some children have both motor speech disorders, differential diagnosis can be challenging. There is a…

Purpose: This study has two key aims--first, to provide developmental articulatory norms for the alveolar-velar distinction in 30 English-speaking typically developing (TD) children; second, to illustrate the utility of the reported measures for classifying and quantifying the speech of children with a history of persistent velar fronting as they…

Purpose: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show particular deficits in the generation of sequenced action--the quintessential procedural task. Practiced imitation of a sequence may become rote and require reduced procedural memory. This study explored whether speech motor deficits in children with SLI occur generally or only in…

School psychologists are asked to provide a number of different services in schools, including evaluating and providing recommendations to educators and parents on children and adolescents with rare genetic conditions. One genetic disorder with physical, cognitive, and behavioral features is Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). PWS is a unique genetic…

Purpose: The present clinical focus draws on an intrinsic case study to provide a thick description of the communication profile of John, a 9-year-old minimally verbal autistic student. Method: Specifically, traditional behavioral assessments, classroom video observations, and semistructured interviews were used to gather information regarding…

The present study investigated the effects of different types of recasts and prompts on the rate of repair and spontaneous use of novel vocabulary by eight children with severe motor speech disabilities who used speech-generating technologies to communicate. Data came from 60 transcripts of clinical sessions that were part of a conversation-based…