Date of Award

Spring 2018

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Donald A Robin

Second Advisor

Kathryn Greenslade

Third Advisor

Amy S Plante

Abstract

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder characterized by increase in segment and intersegment durations (segmentation), equal stress over words and/or sentences, dysprosody, and speech sound distortions. With decreased intelligibility, limited or lack communicative participation arises from an inability to be understood or lack of confidence in their speech. Establishing communicative participation measurements is integral to generalizing and establishing efficacy of treatment program progress to a child’s everyday life. This study observes the communicative participation change of a group of children (n=6) with idiopathic CAS, receiving a new four-week, 16-hour treatment called Treatment for Establishing Motor Programming Organization (TEMPO). Clinically significant changes were seen in communicative participation post TEMPO treatment using the FOCUS-34© parental questionnaire with an average change of 50 points. Specifically, sub-scales of intelligibility, social/play, independence, and coping/emotional skills were seen as driving components of this change.

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