Treating childhood apraxia of speech with the Kaufman speech to language protocol : a Phase I pilot study

Purpose: A Phase I pilot study was designed to collect preliminary evidence on the use of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SLP; Kaufman, 2014) to treat children with childhood apraxia of speech. We hypothesized that the K-SLP approach would result in more accurate speech production in targeted words, whereas untrained (control) words and speech sounds would remain unchanged. Method: A single-case multiple-baseline across behaviors experimental design was used to see if experimental feasibility could be demonstrated. Two children each received a total of 12 1-hr treatment sessions over 3 weeks. The children’s response to treatment and experimental control was measured by administering baseline, treatment, and posttreatment probes. Results: Both children showed some response to treatment, as measured by percent phonemes correct; however, the response to treatment varied. In general, for the treated words that improved with therapy, accuracy was maintained above baseline level during the maintenance phase. Minimal generalization was observed for this study, with only 1 participant generalizing treatment gains to 2 sets of untrained (similar) words. Conclusion: This Phase I pilot study provides limited preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the K-SLP approach in treating childhood apraxia of speech in some children under the conditions specified in this study. Replication of these results in well-controlled studies is needed before this structured and operationalized version of the K-SLP approach can be recommended for clinical use.