UWEC CERCA 2025

This research project's purpose was to study the intersection between childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and traditional speech sound intervention to determine if there is a correlation between discriminative characteristics for CAS and those consistent with a diagnosed articulation disorder. Through examining this intersection, we hope to determine the effectiveness of DTTC for children presenting with CAS characteristics, and the correlation between DTTC treatment and traditional approach for children with articulation and phonological delays. CAS is often over-diagnosed in children, therefore, we wanted to evaluate the two treatment approaches, DTTC and traditional approaches, to determine if children previously presented with CAS characteristics will still benefit from these motor-based interventions. We are conducting a mixed methods study that will utilize a convergent parallel design to analyze a pediatric case study with the diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The quantitative methods will investigate the effects of the Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) intervention and traditional speech sound disorder interventions including components of dynamic assessment that facilitate change. The qualitative methods will identify parent perspectives of the demographic profile of CAS characteristics and the efficacy of DTTC. Recorded video sessions using VALT will be analyzed, and data will be compiled using these videos for scoring. As a result of this study, we are hoping to determine if DTTC should be used in therapy approaches for other children rather than those who just have CAS, and if DTTC presents with more efficient outcomes across targets. Limitations of this study include the influence of CAS-based treatment using DTTC on the subject as this motor-based approach will be used before the traditional approach. Another limitation of this study is that the data being collected is only compiled from one client, therefore, for the results to be applicable, a larger study population would be required for generalization across populations. A point for discussion regards the idea of whether DTTC should be used in therapy approaches for other children rather than those who just have CAS.