Speech Supplementation Strategies for Improving Intelligibility in Children With Cerebral Palsy (CP)
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if speech supplementation can improve speech intelligibility in children ages 7 to 17 years with cerebral palsy. The main questions it aims to answer are: * To what extent can speech supplementation improve intelligibility in children with CP compared with habitual speech produced without speech supplementation? * How much intelligibility change is necessary for meaningful improvement when children use speech supplementation strategies? Participants will: * complete speech and language assessments * complete a speech pre-test using habitual speech * learn a speech supplementation strategy with training from a speech-language pathologist * complete a speech post-test using the speech supplementation strategy
Description
This study uses a pre-/post- test design to test the effects of a one-session intervention to improve speech intelligibility in 100 children with cerebral palsy and dysarthria. The intervention involves the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategy known as speech supplementation. Specifically, children will learn how to simultaneously speak and point to the first letter of each word on a communication board, or to speak and point to a topical picture on a communication board. The strategy serves to provide listeners with context cues for spoken words, and it also serves to imp…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 7–17 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Medical diagnosis of cerebral palsy, or a similar, related condition that affects early motor development and presents as a chronic motor disability * Age between 7 and 17 years * Clinical dysarthria with speech intelligibility between 10-85 percent * Able to produce connected speech in English, with a minimum utterance length of 3 words * Able to use hands to point to items on a communication board * Cognitive/language skills that enable basic picture identification on a communication board * Pass pure tone hearing screening Exclusion Criteria: * Failure to meet all i…
Interventions
- BehavioralAAC Speech supplementation
The speech supplementation intervention involves learning to point to pictures, words, or letters on a communication board while simultaneously producing speech. Children will spend up to 30 minutes learning to use the strategy in one- on-one interaction with a speech therapist and demonstrate mastery by using the strategy successfully on a series of test stimuli.
Location
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman CenterMadison, Wisconsin