A single case experimental design study using an operationalised version of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol for children with childhood apraxia of speech

Abstract

Purpose

A Phase I study was conducted to examine the treatment effectiveness of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol using a research-operationalised protocol. It was hypothesised that articulatory accuracy would improve as a result of the treatment and that these improvements would be maintained after treatment was discontinued.

Method

A single case experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol. Four children with a confirmed childhood apraxia of speech diagnosis were included in this study. Each child received 12 individual 1 hr treatment sessions that each consisted of an approximation setting phase and a practice phase. Probe data was collected during treatment and at post-treatment time points to measure treatment effectiveness and to measure changes in the untreated words. Untreated (control) sounds were included to test whether recorded improvements in articulatory accuracy could be attributed to the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol.

Result

Two of the four children demonstrated a response to the intervention and maintenance of these changes, while the two remaining children demonstrated some generalisation in the absence of improved target (treatment) words. No specific child factors were clearly associated with positive treatment outcomes.

Conclusion

This study replicated the findings of an earlier pilot study and found that the operationalised protocol for the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol is effective in improving articulatory accuracy for some children with childhood apraxia of speech. Additional replication with a further refined treatment protocol and a larger sample size is needed to support a recommendation of clinical use of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol.

Keywords:

• childhood apraxia of speech
• treatment
• Kaufman
• dyspraxia
• speech therapy
• single case experimental design

Acknowledgements

This research was partially funded by The University of Sydney Faculty Funding Scheme awarded to the first author. Parts of this research were presented at the 2016 ASHA Convention, and the 2017 Speech Pathology Australia Conference. We thank the parents and children who participated in this study, as well as the clinicians who assessed and treated these children—Pippa Evans, Tanya Price, Nicole Shaw, Olivia Vun, and Diana Irwin. The researchers are not aware of any conflicts of interest.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors. Some of these findings were presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association National Convention (2016) and the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference (2017).

Notes

1 This research pre-dates the Iuzzini-Seigel et al. (2017) article, which suggests that the DEAP is an unreliable diagnostic measure for CAS.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially funded by The University of Sydney Faculty Funding Scheme to the first author.