Ultrasound biofeedback treatment for persisting childhood apraxia of speech

• Published in: American journal of speech-language pathology Vol. 22; no. 4; p. 627
• Main Authors: Preston, Jonathan L, Brick, Nickole, Landi, Nicole
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-11-2013
• Subjects: Adolescent; Apraxias - diagnostic imaging; Apraxias - physiopathology; Apraxias - therapy; Biofeedback, Psychology - methods; Child; Cues; Feedback, Sensory - physiology; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Male; Phonetics; Speech - physiology; Speech Disorders - diagnostic imaging; Speech Disorders - physiopathology; Speech Disorders - therapy; Speech Therapy - methods; Tongue - diagnostic imaging; Tongue - physiology; Treatment Outcome; Ultrasonic Therapy - methods; Ultrasonography; childhood apraxia of speech; intervention; children; speech sound disorders; efficacy; articulation
• ISSN: 1558-9110
• DOI: 10.1044/1058-0360(2013/12-0139)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment program that includes ultrasound biofeedback for children with persisting speech sound errors associated with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).
Six children ages 9-15 years participated in a multiple baseline experiment for 18 treatment sessions during which treatment focused on producing sequences involving lingual sounds. Children were cued to modify their tongue movements using visual feedback from real-time ultrasound images. Probe data were collected before, during, and after treatment to assess word-level accuracy for treated and untreated sound sequences. As participants reached preestablished performance criteria, new sequences were introduced into treatment.
All participants met the performance criterion (80% accuracy for 2 consecutive sessions) on at least 2 treated sound sequences. Across the 6 participants, performance criterion was met for 23 of 31 treated sequences in an average of 5 sessions. Some participants showed no improvement in untreated sequences, whereas others showed generalization to untreated sequences that were phonetically similar to the treated sequences. Most gains were maintained 2 months after the end of treatment. The percentage of phonemes correct increased significantly from pretreatment to the 2-month follow-up.
A treatment program including ultrasound biofeedback is a viable option for improving speech sound accuracy in children with persisting speech sound errors associated with CAS.