Article

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of
speech-generating devices (SGDs) on the communication and language development of
a 2-year-old boy with severe childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). METHODS: An A-B
design was used over a treatment period of 1 year, followed by three additional
follow-up measurements, in order to evaluate the implementation of SGDs in the
speech therapy of a 2;7-year-old boy with severe CAS.
In total, 53 therapy
sessions were videotaped and analyzed to better understand his communicative
(operationalized as means of communication) and linguistic (operationalized as
intelligibility and consistency of speech-productions, lexical and grammatical
development) development. The trend-lines of baseline phase A and intervention
phase B were compared and percentage of non-overlapping data points were
calculated to verify the value of the intervention. RESULTS: The use of SGDs led
to an immediate increase in the communicative development of the child. An
increase in all linguistic variables was observed, with a latency effect of eight
to nine treatment sessions. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of SGDs in speech
therapy has the potential to be highly effective in regards to both communicative
and linguistic competencies in young children with severe CAS. Implications for
Rehabilitation Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological speech sound
disorder which results in significant deficits in speech production and lead to a
higher risk for language, reading and spelling difficulties. Speech-generating
devices (SGD), as one method of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC),
can effectively enhance the communicative and linguistic development of children
with severe CAS.

Langue : ANGLAIS