Improvements in Speech of Children with Apraxia: The Efficacy of Treatment for Establishing Motor Program Organization (TEMPO^SM)

Purpose: This study investigated the efficacy of Treatment for Establishing Motor Program Organization (TEMPO^SM) in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).

Method: A mixed between- and within-participant design with multiple baselines across participants and behaviors was used to examine acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of skills. TEMPO^SM was administered in four one-hour sessions a week over a four-week period for eleven participants (ages 5 to 8), allocated to either an immediate treatment group or a wait-list control group. Acoustic and perceptual variables were measured at baseline, immediate post-treatment, and one-month post-treatment.

Results: Children demonstrated significant improvements in specific acoustic measures of segmentation and lexical stress, as well as perceptual measures of fluency, lexical stress, and speech-sound accuracy. Treatment and generalization effects were maintained one-month post-treatment with generalization to untreated stimuli.

Conclusion: TEMPO^SM was efficacious in improving segmental and suprasegmental impairments in the speech of children with CAS.