A Multi-modal Approach to Treating

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Shelley Beth Myers, MS, CCC-SLP

April Nelson, MA, CCC-SLP
 Insert subject

Session Objectives
o To understand commonly accepted diagnostic criteria of
childhood
hildh d apraxiai off speech
h (CAS)
o To increase awareness of commonly used treatment
approaches for CAS
o To gain additional knowledge of resources and ideas for
therapy.
 What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
ASHA suggests the following definition:
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological childhood
(pediatric) speech sound disorder in which the precision and
consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in
the absence of neuromuscular deficits (e.g., abnormal reflexes,
abnormal tone).
CAS may occur as a result of known neurological impairment, in
association with complex neurobehavioral disorders of known or
unknown origin, or as an idiopathic neurogenic speech sound
disorder.
The core impairment in planning and/or programming
spatiotemporal parameters off movement sequences results in
errors in speech sound production and prosody.

ASHA position statement and technical report can be found on ASHAs

ASHA s
website at: http://www.asha.org/slp/clinical/Apraxia
Key points from ASHAs position statement
CAS is a distinct diagnostic type of speech sound disorder
CAS occurs in three clinical contexts
1. Known neurological etiologies (e.g., intrauterine stroke,
infections, trauma).
2. Primary or secondary sign in children with complex
neurobehavioral disorders (e.g.,
(e g genetic
genetic, metabolic)
metabolic).
3. Idiopathic neurogenic speech sound disorder.
Use of the term apraxia of speech implies a shared core of speech and
prosody features
features, regardless of time of onset
onset, whether congenital or
acquired, or specific etiology.
CAS is preferred over alternative terms for this disorder, including
developmental apraxia of speech and developmental verbal dyspraxia,
which have typically been used to refer only to the idiopathic
presentation.
Breaking it down:
CAS versus a phonological
h l i l disorder
di d
Currently, there is no standardized list of diagnostic features of
CAS that
th t differentiates
diff ti t it ffrom other
th types
t off childhood
hildh d speechh
sound disorders.

ASHA notes agreement on the following:

Inconsistent errors on consonants and vowels
Difficulty
y with transitions between sounds and syllables
y
Errors in prosody

http://www.asha.org/slp/clinical/Apraxia
Breaking it down:
CAS versus a phonological disorder
Phonological
g disorders involve a ppredictable,, p
patterns of
sound errors
Fronting, Backing, Final Consonant Deletion, etc.
For example,
example substituting all sounds made in the back of
the mouth like "k" and "g" for those in the front of the
mouth like "t" and "d" (e.g., saying "tup" for "cup" or "das"
f "gas")
for " ")

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/speechsounddisorders.htm
Child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Video
Warning Signs for CAS:
Uses only vowel sounds, grunts, or single syllables to communicate at 15 months or older
Has few words (less than 5) at 15 months or older
May not have cooed or babbled as an infant
Makes more errors on longer words or sentences than with single sounds or syllables
Has difficulty imitating speech, but imitated speech is more clear than spontaneous
speech
Sounds choppy, monotonous, or stresses the wrong syllable or word
Can understand language much better than he or she can produce through speech.
May struggle when trying to move their mouth into the right position to make a sound.
I hard
Is h d to
t understand,
d t d especiallyi ll ffor an unfamiliar
f ili lilistener
t
May have problems when learning to read, spell, and write
Evaluation
E al ation of CAS
Diagnoses of CAS is rarely completed in one session can
t k months
take th
Few standardized tools exist
Diagnosis should be made by a speech-language pathologist
experienced in CAS
Generally, there will be a significant gap between receptive and
expressive language scores
How do you treat Apraxia of Speech?
 y use a multi-modal approach?
Why pp

Children with CAS do not all respond to the same treatment

approaches/strategies
h / t t i

SLPs should be aware of and trial multiple approaches to find

what works the best for each child

Often,, you
y mayy use more than one approach
pp with the same
child, in the same session, perhaps simultaneously
 Evidenced Based Practice
ASHA states: The term evidence-based practice refers to an approach
in which current, high-quality research evidence is integrated with
practitioner expertise and client preferences and values into the
process of making clinical decisions.
 Evidence-Based Systematic
Reviews related to CAS
The efficacy of intervention for developmental apraxia of speech/developmental
p
verbal apraxia
The Cochrane Collaboration; Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia
Intervention for Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Conclusion: No treatment recommendations can be made from this review.
Additional evidence is needed in order to establish treatment efficacy for
childhood apraxia of speech.

Effects of Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises on Speech

Conclusion: Insufficient evidence to support or refute the use of OMEs. There
is a need for well-designed studies using well-described participant groups

Melodic Intonation Therapy with Young Children with Apraxia

Conclusion: the empirical evidence to support Melodic Intonation Therapy
with children is meager at best.

www.asha.org
Treatment Approaches and Strategies

Integration of motor learning principles

Touch/Gestural Cues
Backward chaining
The Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol
Pacing
Use of intonation
Use of AAC
P
Promptst for
f Restructuring
R t t i Oral O l Muscular
M l Phonetic
Ph ti TTargets
t
(PROMPT)
What is motor learning theory?
How do we apply motor learning to
treatment to treatment of CAS?

Consider the difference between

Performance vs Learning

Learning = generalization
 Factors that Affect Motor Learning
g

1 Precursors to learning:
1.

the
e therapeutic
e apeu c relationship
ea o s p
motivation
understanding
2. Conditions of Practice:

Repetition
Repetition

Blocked vs Random
-1 target
g at a time vs multiple
p targets
g within an
activity
-learning a target vs practicing in context
-in session results vs generalization
3 F
3. Feedback:
db k
Extrinsic (from clinician)
Knowledge of performance
Knowledge of results
Intrinsic (important in self monitoring)

4. Influence of Rate:
reduced
d d rate
t reduces
d diffi
difficulty
lt
How do you apply motor learning theory to your
treatment?
1. Motor learning requires a lot of practice!
Consider where the child is in therapy and the best type of
practice to use to support learning.
2. When practicing, children require support and
feedback.
feedback
Consider the types of support you are giving (touch cues,
gestural cues, pacing board, verbal model etc.) and the type of
feedback you give (knowledge of performance vs knowledge of
results)
How can you fade supports to facilitate learning?
 What are touch/gesture cues?

Visual/tactile cues that help a child see how to produce a sound

Many versions exist
Easy Does It/Vowel Turtles
Kaufman
The Source of Down Syndrome
 Easy Does It
It

Easyy Does It for Apraxia

p
refers to gestural speech cues as
hand signals

They provide pictures and a

written description of the touch
cue for
o bo
both p
professional
o ess o a a andd
family education
 Kaufman Approach
Kaufman refers to gestural speech cues as both
hand signal cues & visual, tactile cues
 g
What are touch/gesture cues?
Video
Meet Liam
Touch Cues
Video
Touch Cues
Video
Touch Cues (with Kaufman cards)
Video
Touch Cues (with sound labels)
Video
Touch Cues (with sound labels)
Video
Touch Cues (with sound labels)
Video
Dynamic Temporal & Tactile Cueing
(DTTC)
Treatment approach
pp developed
p by y
Edythe Strand
Hierarchal approach that utilizes the principles of motor learning
theory
Helps children to systematically improve their speech
Can integrate any cueing necessary
Backward chaining

Starting at the end of a word, saying the last sound or syllable first
d moving
and i b k
backwardd th h th
through d
the word.
Backward Chaining
Video
Backward Chaining (with touch cues and
Kaufman cards)
Video
Backward Chaining (with gestural cues)
Video
 Kaufman Speech to Learning Protocol
A way of teaching children with apraxia of speech the easiest way of
saying words until they have increased motor-speech coordination

Taught the shell of words without including too many of the complex
consonants, vowels, or syllables which make a word too difficult to
even attempt on a motor basis

Reflects how children attempt to say their first words

For example, the word bottle may begin as ba, progress to
, later becomes bado,
baba, , and eventually, y, bottle.

From:
http://kidspeech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=460
Kaufman (with touch cues)
Video
Use of Intonation
Targeting intonation in therapy may help improve overall
prosody/fluency
Intonation/Rhythmic 1
Video
Intonation/Rhythmic 2
Video
Pacing Boards

Pacing boards provide a visual and motoric cuing system

Can be used at a syllable level or to expand utterance length

The Pacing Board: A Technique to Assist the Transition From

Single Word to Mutliword Utterances - by Libby Kumin, Cheryl
Councill, & Mina Goodman, 1995

From : http://www.ds-health.com/speech.htm
Pacing Boards
Pacing Board
Video
Pacing (with pictures)
Video
Use of AAC/Sign Language
The use of AAC does not inhibit the production of verbal
communication
The impact of augmentative and alternative communication intervention
on the speech production of individuals with developmental disabilities: a
research review.
J Speech
p Lang
g Hear Res. 2006 Apr;49(2):248-64.
p; ( )

Synthetic Speech has been show to facilitate verbal speech

Synthetic speech can facilitate the segmenting of speech into word units
since the boundaries are more clearly defined than in human speech, and
stress is not an important aspect of synthesized speech. - Parsons &
LaSorte, 1993
.
 g AAC/Sign
Using g Language
g g
Systematic Review
Effects of augmentative and alternative communication intervention
on speech production in children with autism: a systematic review.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2008 Aug;17(3):212-30

*** Continue to work on both speech and AAC to increase

language knowledge
AAC
Video
AAC
Video
 PROMPT
Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets a tactile-
kinesthetic approach that uses touch cues to a patients articulators
(jaw tongue
(jaw, tongue, lips) to manually guide them through a targeted word
word,
phrase or sentence

Develops motor control and the development of proper oral muscular

movements, while eliminating unnecessary muscle movements, such
as jaw sliding and inadequate lip rounding

The therapist attempts to teach the patients muscles to produce a

phoneme correctly by stimulating all of these through touch

From: http://promptinstitute.com/index.php?page=what-is-primpt
PROMPT
Video
Deborah Hayden
Where do I start?

Choose sounds that are stimulable

Choose syllable shapes (CV, CVC, CVCV)
Choose functional vocabulary words
Choose motivatingg activities
Introduce AAC as necessary- PECS, sign, speech generating
device, choice boards
Ideas for Therapy
Tabletop
T bl t A Activities:
ti iti
Therasimplicity search and finds
Paint target words with watercolors
Play-doh
Play doh make pretend foods with target sound
Make an animal craft with the target sound and give it
items to eat
Mailbox
Mailbox-mailmail pictures with target sound
Potato Head
Books with target sound
Sink or float g game-find items with target
g sound and
guess if it will sink or float
Chain links with pictures
Fruit loops and decorate a picture with the sound
Hopping frogs on pads with hidden pictures
underneath
Movement Activities:
Basketball
Bounce on therapy ball
Drums,
D shakers
h k
Pretend youre a frog and hop on lily pads practicing the sound
Pretend to Mop the floor and clean up sounds around the room
Ring toss
Crawl through a tunnel
Say the name of an animal that has your sound and act out the
animal
Play charades and act out people, places and things with sound
targets
Sing songs and act out movements
Pretend Play:
Play with the little people house and act out play schemes that
incorporate target vocabulary
Restaurant and have items on the menu that have target sound
Pretend
P t d to t have
h a birthday
bi thd partyt andd open presents t with
ith ttargett
sounds
Make a wand with the target sound on the top and the child will
t
turn the
th clinician
li i i iintot something
thi that
th t has
h ththeir
i ttargett sound-can
d
use this with the magic castle
Grocery Store and buy items with target sound
Train has to pick up and deliver items with target sound.
Vehicles are going to different stores that have the childs target
sound
Blues Clues and use a magnifying glass and find clues around
the room.
Resources/Materials
Easy Does It for Apraxia Preschool/Easy Does It for Apraxia and Motor
Planning- Robin Strode Downing and Catherine Chamberlin
The Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol Workout Book- Nancy Kaufman
Say and Do Sound Production- Jennifer Perkins Faulk and Lisa Priddy
Word FLIPS-Rhonda Granger
Phrase FLiPS - Julie A. Daymut, Clint Johnson, and Liz Wright
Moving Across Syllables Training Articulatory Sound Sequences- Jill
Kirkpatrick, Pamela Stohr, and Deborah Kimbrough
Syllable Drilling Card Deck- CarolAnn C. Hammar
Music
M i iin M My Mouth-Cincinnati
M th Ci i ti Childrens
Child Hospital
H it l
Ipad apps-
http://www.oneplaceforspecialneeds.com/main/library_special_needs_apps.ht
ml
Computer games
Resources/Materials
Kaufman Cards- basic and advanced
Word Flips by Rhonda Granger
M lti ll bi d
Multi-syllabic drill
ill cards-Super
d S Duper
D P
Publications
bli ti
Vowel Turtles from Easy Does It Series
Magne Talk Match Up-Super Duper Publications
CD- Sounds at the End
Music in My Mouth Cincinnati Childrens Hospital
iPad apps/computer games
Photographs/digital camera to discuss
Pacing boards
Flip Book and Activities
Acti ities for Apraxia
Apra ia
Say and Do Sound Production and More
Websites
ASHA
www.asha.org

CASANA-The Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of

North America (CASANA)
http://www.apraxia-kids.org/
Questions?
References
Gildersleeve-Neumann,
Gild l N C. (2011)
C (2011). The
Th iimportance
t off production
d ti ffrequency iin th
therapy
for childhood apraxia of speech. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology,
20(2), 95-110.
Kumin, L., Councill, C., & Goodman, M. (1995). The pacing board: A technique to
assist in the transition from single words to multiword utterances. Infant-Toddler
Intervention, The Transdisciplinary Journal, 5(1), 23-30.
Parsons, C.L. & La Sorte, D. (1993). The effect of computers with synthesized
speech
p and no speech
p on the spontaneous
p communication of children with autism.
Aust J Hum Commun Disord, 21(1), 12-31.
Maas, E., Robin, D.A., Hula S. N.A., Freedman, S.N., Wulf, G., Ballard, K.J., &
Schmidt, R.A (2008). Principles of motor learning in treatment of motor speech
disorders American Journal of Speech-Language
disorders. Speech Language Pathology,
Pathology 17,17 277
277-298
298.
Miller, D.C., Light, J.C., & Schlosser, R.W. (2006). The impact of augmentative and
alternative communication intervention on the speech production of individuals with
developmental disabilities: A research review. Journal of Speech, Language, and
Hearing Research,
Research 49 49, 248-264.
248 264
Schmidt, R. A. (2003). Motor schema theory after 27 years: Reflections and
implications for a new theory. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 74, 366375