Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) Treatment Evaluation
Overview
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 post-treatment in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).
Data
Data were collected from seven children with CAS (aged 2-5) who received 6 weeks of Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) treatment.
Method
We used a multidimensional approach to measure speech performance, auditory-perceptual (whole-word accuracy), acoustic (whole-word duration), and kinematic (jaw movement variability) analyses. We used linear mixed-effect model to estimate the effect and w stepwise algorithm was used to find the model with the lowest AIC score.
Results
We found a negative relationship between auditory-perceptual measures of word accuracy and movement variability. Higher word accuracy was associated with lower jaw movement variability following intervention. There was a strong relationship between word accuracy and word duration at baseline, which became less robust posttreatment. Furthermore, baseline word accuracy was the only child-specific factor to predict response to DTTC treatment.
Conclusions
Following a period of motor-based intervention, children with CAS appeared to refine speech motor control in conjunction with improvements in word accuracy. Those who demonstrated the poorest performance at treatment onset displayed the most significant gains. In summary, these results reflect a system-wide change following motor-based intervention.