Rapid syllable transitions (ReST) treatment for Cantonese-speaking children with childhood apraxia of speech : a case series

Abstract

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that severely affect speech intelligibility in children. This study investigated the effectiveness of Rapid Syllable Transitions (ReST) treatment for CAS in Cantonese context. ReST is currently one of the English CAS treatments with highest evidence, which emphasizes the principle of motor learning in improving segmental accuracy, transition within and among syllables, and prosodic accuracy in speech. In this study, a multiple-baseline across participants design was used to examine treatment efficacy for six school-aged children with CAS, aged eight to 11 years, who received ReST treatment twice a week for six to nine weeks. Outcome measures from non-treated real words probes was quantitatively documented and then analysed using Tau-U statistics. Results showed that all participants have significant treatment gains in at least one speech parameter with large effect sizes. This study provided preliminary evidence that ReST is effective in generalizing segmental accuracy and syllable transition to real words. Severity may have played a role in responsiveness towards this approach. Clinical applications and limitations were further discussed.