Apraxia Kids Research Grants

Apraxia Kids Research Grants is sponsored by Apraxia Kids. Funds research projects focused on childhood apraxia of speech, with a particular interest in diverse populations and specific research topics.

Apraxia Kids Research Grants - Apraxia Kids Apraxia Kids is committed to supporting research projects as it is vital to our mission that evidence-based assessment and treatment protocols are available to children with CAS.

Current Research Projects Funded by Apraxia Kids How Childhood Apraxia of Speech Affects My Life: Perspectives of Children and Caregivers Dr. Michelle Turner Swartz, Dr. Elaine R Hitchcock, Dr. Kathryn Cabbage September, 2023 – August, 2025 While it is widely accepted that one’s social-emotional well-being plays an important role in overall quality of life (World Health Organization [WHO], 2007), the effects of CAS on a child’s social-emotional status are poorly understood.

Recognizing that children with CAS potentially experience limitations in life events (Gillon & Moriarty, 2007), this study will investigate the social and emotional experiences of children with CAS through multiple phases that include focus groups, interviews, and surveys of both children with CAS and their primary caregiver. The results may ultimately offer critical insights to improve long-term outcomes for this population.

The first step will be a series of separate child and caregiver focus group sessions. Using the information generated from the focus groups, each participant will complete an individual one-on-one interview with the principle investigator to further explore the participant’s lived experiences.

Lastly, a survey will be conducted where participants will complete a psychosocial assessment battery regarding themselves (child) or their child (caregiver) and a novel survey regarding the communication experiences of themselves (child) or their child (caregiver). This novel communication survey will be constructed using information generated from the focus groups and individual participant interviews.

Knowing the social-emotional status of a child with CAS could potentially assist a clinician in appropriate treatment decisions, clinician-patient interaction, and possible need for referral to other services (e.g., counseling and/or support groups).

Furthermore, the child’s social-emotional status may impact their motivation during therapy, responsiveness to treatment, and attitudes regarding use of communication outside the therapy setting (Hitchcock et al. , 2023). The research team believes that investigating other characteristics of children with CAS beyond speech production may have a positive long-term impact on the quality of life for children with CAS.

A Crossover Study of Dynamic Temporal Tactile Cueing in Cantonese-English Bilingual children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech Eddy Wong PhD student at Hong Kong Poly Technic University mentored by Dr. Min Wong and Dr Shelley Velleman September 2023 through August 2024 Dynamic Temporal Tactile Cueing (DTTC) is a motor-based treatments designed for children with severe CAS who may have limited verbal output (Strand, 2020).

It applies the principles of motor learning and focuses on speech movement gestures in the context of functional words or phrases (Strand, 2020). Results of single-case or multiple baseline studies have suggested that Dynamic Temporal Tactile Cueing (DTTC) is an efficacious treatment for English speakers with CAS (Strand & Debertine, 2000; Strand et al. , 2006).

Some treatment approaches have been investigated in non-English speakers with CAS, such as DTTC in German (Leonhartsberger et al. , 2022) and Mandarin (Liu et al. , 2019); Rapid Syllable Transition (ReST) in Italian (Scarcella et al.

, 2021) and Korean (Kim et al. , 2015). These treatment approaches have also been examined in Cantonese speakers with CAS.

Given that the current evidence for the available treatments is mainly based on monolinguals (i.e., either English or Cantonese), it is unknown if these treatment approaches work equally well in both languages of English-Cantonese bilingual speakers with CAS and whether generalization will occur across languages. The aim of this study is to investigate DTTC treatment in four English-Cantonese bilingual speakers with confirmed CAS.

Two versions of DTTC treatment (i.e., DTTC in English [DTTC-E] and DTTC in Cantonese [DTTC-C]) will be given to each of the bilingual participants, in a randomly allocated order of treatment. Each participant will be given either DTTC-E first or DTTC-C first followed by a two week break with no treatment to obtain probe data and then a second round of DTTC treatment in the other language.

One week and one month post treatment probes will be collected. The probes will examine segments (phoneme accuracy, syllable complexity and intelligibility) and suprasegmental features of lexical stress (English) and lexical tone (Cantonese). It is expected that the participants will demonstrate treatment and generalization effects in both segments and lexical stress in English and segments and lexical tone in Cantonese.

The results will validate evidence-based intervention approaches to English-Cantonese bilingual speakers and Cantonese monolingual speakers with CAS. Impacts of Augmentative and Alternative Communication on Participation and Production in Children with Apraxia of Speech Megan Littlejohn, PhD student at Temple University, mentored by Dr. Edwin Maas.

September 2024-August 2025 Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a speech sound disorder (SSD) subtype of speech motor planning and/or programming, which decreases children’s intelligibility. This, in turn, impacts their communicative participation in everyday life. Additionally, progress in therapy is noted to be slow.

One proposed solution to help alleviate these difficulties involves incorporating augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) into speech and language treatment. Often, this takes the form of high-tech speech-generating devices, with flexible applications that can be customized to an individual child’s needs.

While prior research has supported the use of AAC as a communicative support from a participation and language perspective, this impact has yet to be rigorously explored for children with CAS. Furthermore, few studies have looked at whether AAC can support the development of speech production accuracy.

Families often express concern that adopting a speech-generating AAC device may hinder the development of speech communication, and while most research conducted with other disorders refutes this from a linguistic perspective (e.g., mean length of utterance, number of initiations), there is limited research specifically examining AAC’s effects on production accuracy for children with CAS.

This suggests that there is a need to investigate these areas of the field, and leads to the present proposal’s aims: Specific Aim 1: Determine the impact of AAC on speech production accuracy in CAS – Does AAC enhance or hinder speech production accuracy? Specific Aim 2: Determine the impact of AAC on communicative participation in CAS – Does AAC enhance or hinder communicative participation?

The proposed study utilizes a combined alternating treatment with multiple-baselines across behaviors single-subject design with three treatment phases, replicated across two children with CAS aged 3-5 years, to examine the impact of AAC use on speech production accuracy and communicative participation.

Findings from this research will illustrate the potential use of AAC as a clinical tool to supplement more traditional CAS treatment, as common goals and concerns of families often point towards opposite treatment decisions regarding AAC.

On the one hand, families are concerned that AAC will hinder speech production progress (suggesting not to use AAC), and on the other hand, parents want to provide their children with more opportunities to be understood (suggesting that AAC would be beneficial).

Providing data on the nature of this clinical tool and how it can influence speech and language treatment will help clinicians and families have an improved understanding of how AAC fits into the overall picture of management and care for the whole child, which will help focus clinical practice and research to best support the interests of the families they serve.

The role of somatosensory perception in speech sound production and speech motor learning in children with CAS Bhavana Bhat, PhD student at University of Iowa, mentored by Dr. Hayo Terband. September 2024-August 2025 Speech production is the result of coordinated, rapid and precise movements of the articulators. For this to happen, both feedforward and feedback systems should be able to function in synergy.

Leading models of speech production such as Directions into Velocities of Articulation (Tourville & Guenther, 2011), and State Feedback Control (Houde & Nagarajan, 2011) underscore the importance of auditory and somatosensory feedback on speech production.

Additionally, researchers have extensively studied auditory feedback and acuity and its effect on speech production, whereas the relationship between somatosensory feedback and acuity on speech production remains underexplored.

The somatosensory system consists of two types of feedback: tactile feedback, which involves the stimulation of mechanoreceptors in the skin when touched, such as when the tongue contacts the alveolar ridge or the palate, and proprioceptive feedback, which is provided by muscle spindles and other receptors, which relay information about the position of the articulator and its movement trajectories.

Somatosensory acuity is a term given to the threshold of the ability to use somatosensory feedback to identify fine differences in articulatory targets (Attanasio, 1987). There have been several case reports that the core deficits of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) stem from reduced oral sensitivity of the tongue and the palate (Terband et al. , 2009).

Through computational modelling it has been hypothesized that poor somatosensory information would lead to degraded feed-forward commands and an increased reliance on feedback control (Terband et al. , 2009). We aim to test this hypothesis and understand the somatosensory acuity in children with CAS in this project.

As the tongue is the most important articulator and involved in production of most of the consonants, we will be focusing on measuring only the lingual somatosensory acuity. In this study, we will be using two tasks: oral stereognosis and a force pressure matching task to measure somatosensory acuity.

These tasks provide different information about the tongue; the oral stereognosis task is designed to assess tactile acuity and the force pressure matching task informs us of the proprioceptive acuity. Therefore, this project will highlight the role of somatosensory perception in speech sound production and speech motor learning in children with CAS.

Understanding the somatosensory perception could serve as a predictor for treatment outcomes for CAS. Research Grant Application Apraxia Kids’ primary interest is in high quality scientific research that, upon completion, will be suitable and acceptable for peer-reviewed publications and is clinically applicable. All topics relevant to childhood apraxia of speech will be considered.

However, Apraxia Kids is particularly interested in funding proposals that address one or more of the following topics across diverse populations including race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, language, age, and comorbidity: Treatment approaches for CAS that include biophysical evidence alongside behavioral evidence.

Looking at the whole child, especially comorbid conditions and social emotional aspects of CAS across the lifespan including teens and young adults. The effects of CAS on early phonological awareness skills and literacy development. The role of perception in the development of speech sound production in children with CAS.

Prognosis for children with CAS. Child and parent reported outcome measures. Apraxia Kids is interested in funding Principal Investigators at different career stages including those with research doctorates, and student researchers at all levels – PhD, master’s, and undergraduate students.

Therefore, there are three different Clinical Research Grant competitions available. The Clinical Research Grant competition is for investigators with research doctorates and includes Post Doctoral Fellows. The Doctoral Student Clinical Research Grant is open to PhD students.

The Undergraduate/Masters Student Clinical Research Grant competition is open to all undergraduate and masters level students but students from historically underrepresented groups are specifically encouraged to apply. Apraxia Kids Three Research Grant Applications are now open! Please click below to see information and the full application.

UG/Master’s Student Clinical Research Grant Application Doctoral Student Clinical Grant Application Clinical Research Grant Application Letters of intent will be due the end of March, 2026 Final applications will be due end of May, 2026 Decision notifications will be sent out the end of July 2026 At Apraxia Kids, we strive to maximize the impact of every dollar entrusted to us by our generous donors.

To ensure that funds are directed towards programmatic activities and directly benefit the communities we serve, we have established a policy that does not allow for the inclusion of indirect (Facilities and Administrative) costs in grant proposals.

By not allowing indirect costs in grant proposals, we aim to maintain transparency and accountability in our grantmaking process, as well as to maximize the resources available for programmatic activities and community outreach. For more information about allowable budget items, please click here . Each year, Apraxia Kids provides funding to researchers who submit proposals for research projects.

Over the years, these studies have proven to be invaluable to the apraxia community in supporting assessment and treatment decision-making. Since the program’s inception in 2009, Apraxia Kids has awarded over $500,000 to fund research studies focused on childhood apraxia of speech.

Principle Investigator: Dr. Chantelle Highman Other Investigators: Dr. Megan Overby, Dr. Suze Leitao, Dr. Karen Wylie, and Dr. Tricia McCabe Research Organization: Curtin University State/Province/Country: Perth, Western Australia Title: Investigating Early Experiences of Intervention for Children with CAS: Parent Perspectives Summary: While we have data on what services are provided to children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), we do not have a parental perspective on what was provided, and whether it met their needs and those of their children.

The present proposal initiates an exploration of two environmental factors relevant to children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS): 1) parents’ desired long term successful outcomes (attitudes) for their child with CAS, and 2) parents’ perspectives of early intervention services their child received in the first 3 years of life.

The parents from 15 children aged 3;0 to 6;11 years with CAS across the United States and Australia will be recruited from participants currently engaged in a Dynamic therapy study. The parents will participate in a structured interview to gain insight into the environmental factors being studied.

The study directly addresses calls for research to help clinicians align services to the needs of the family unit through appropriate service provision options and treatment goals. In addition, the results will guide clinicians to develop best practice for young children.

Principle Investigator: Dr. Jenya Iuzzini-Seigel and Dr. Priscila Tamplain Organization: University of Texas at Arlington and Marquette University State/Province/Country: Arlington, Texas and Milwaukee, Wisconsin Title: Developmental Coordination Disorder Characteristics in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech: An Estimation of Prevalence in the United States Summary: Research has shown there are higher rates of gross and fine motor difficulties in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) than in children with other types of communication disorders.

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by substantial delays in acquisition and execution of coordinated fine and gross motor skills (APA, 2013). The movement abilities of children with DCD frequently lead to performance difficulties in activities of daily living and physical. This proposal will study DCD characteristics in 70 children aged 3-10 years with CAS.

Each child will have a virtual speech and language assessment and then in-person testing of motor skills along with surveys and developmental checklists to be completed by the caregivers. The data will be analyzed to describe the gross and fine motor skills of children with CAS and the prevalence of those who meet the criteria to be diagnosed as DCD.

This data will help guide specific treatment in the area of gross and fine motor skills to help prevent or at least mitigate the secondary physical and social-emotional consequences associated with DCD.

Principle Investigator: Hannah Valentine, PhD student Other Investigators: Dr. Maria Grigos, Mentor Organization: New York University State/Province/Country: New York, New York Title: A Survey of Early Interventionists’ Beliefs and Practices in Diagnosing Childhood Apraxia of Speech Summary: Optimal prognosis for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) requires early identification and intervention.

Unfortunately, many children with CAS are not identified until school-age (Lewis et al. , 2004; Murray et al. , 2015).

Early intervention speech-language pathologists (EI SLPs) are the first line of defense for identifying CAS in young children. Despite this critical role of early interventionists, there is currently no scientific data on EI SLPs’ attitudes, beliefs, and practices in assessing and treating CAS.

The objectives of this project are to establish the knowledge, beliefs, demographic predictors, and clinical practices of EI SLPs in diagnosing and treating CAS in children under three years. This research will be conducted via a novel and innovative survey developed by the research team. Surveys will be collected from 300 ASHA certified SLPs in the US working at federally-funded early intervention agencies.

The analysis will provide systematic, data-driven insight on how to enhance efforts to identify and treat CAS in young children. Results will form the scientific foundation for further hypothesis-driven projects to train EI SLPs in evidence-based identification and intervention of CAS.

Principle Investigator: Emily Wang, PhD student Other Investigators: Dr. Maria Grigos, Mentor Organization: New York University State/Province/Country: New York, New York Title: Perception and Production of Lexical Stress in Childhood Apraxia of Speech Summary: Presently, it is unclear whether deficits in perception underlie prosodic deficits demonstrated by children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), and furthermore, whether such difficulties are mediated by language skill.

The proposed work will examine the perception and production of lexical stress of 45 children in three groups aged 3;0 – 5;11 years: children with CAS without language impairment, children with CAS and concomitant language impairment and children with typical speech and language development (TD).

Children in each group will be tested using the syllable “buh” in 2 and 3 syllable pseudo words (BUH-buh) to determine their ability to both perceive different stress of words and to repeat the same words with accurate stress.

The overall objectives are to quantify the perception and production of lexical stress, as well as the relationship between perception and production, for each of the three groups and to ascertain the impact of language skills. This work will provide a strong scientific foundation for future research to identify the mechanisms underlying prosodic impairment and to explore the assessment and treatment of those prosodic deficits in CAS.

Principle Investigator: Dr. Elizabeth Murray Other Investigators: Dr. Shelley Velleman, University of Vermont; Dr. Tricia McCabe, University of Sydney and Dr. Jonathan Preston, University of Syracuse Organization: University of Sydney State/Province/Country: Sydney, Australia Title of Research Study: Reliability of Expert Diagnosis of Apraxia of Speech in Children Aged 2-18 Years Subjects: 92 children aged 2-8 years with moderate-severe speech sound disorders (SSD) including childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and children aged 8-18 years with CAS or residual speech errors.

Each child’s speech tasks were recorded. Each child’s recordings were rated by 3 randomly assigned expert speech-language pathologists (SLPs) using an online rating form to identify the child’s speech features and determine their speech diagnosis. The expert SLPs had a minimum of 5 years working with SSD and CAS and at least 1 peer-reviewed publication or international or national presentation on CAS.

They were primarily English speakers and had normal hearing and vision. Research Question: We sought to determine reliability or agreement among experts on the question – “what is the child’s diagnosis? (1) CAS, (2) CAS + Other [communication diagnosis] or (3) Other (than CAS)”.

Results: Agreement for all three categories was below the ≥ 85% benchmark for percent agreement (Kratchowil et al, 2010) and the ≥ 0. 61 benchmark for Fleiss Kappa (Landis and Koch, 1977). Agreement was highest for diagnosis of Other (than CAS).

Supplemental analysis found experts used similar features to rate CAS but did not agree on to what extent each feature had to be present in order to diagnose CAS. Conclusions: Expert SLPs across different clinical and research teams in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada agreed about the presence of features used to rate CAS.

However, they did not agree on whether a child actually had CAS or not using recorded footage as some were more conservative than others. Based on this, we need to improve our reliability of expert diagnosis by determining operational definitions and cut offs of CAS features and to support our listening judgments with more objective measures.

In the meantime, clinical implications include the need for caution when diagnosing CAS from listening-based assessment tasks (e.g., getting support from more experienced colleagues) and the need to complete comprehensive assessment to determine other potential communication issues and SSDs. Experts used the idea of continua to rate which one is primary for decision making and this could help clinicians.

Principle Investigator: Julie Case Other Investigators: Maria Grigos Research Organization: New York University State/Province/Country: New York Title: Motoric Complexity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech Subjects: 24 children age 5;0 to 6;11: 8 children with apraxia of speech (CAS), 8 children with other speech sound disorders (SSD), 8 children with typical development (TD) Results: A framework of motoric complexity was proposed based on the degree of movement elements involved in consonant-vowel sequences.

Results of transcription, acoustic, and kinematic analyses revealed that children with CAS were less accurate and displayed longer and more variable speech movements than the other two groups of children. Despite these group differences, all children displayed differences in speech performance across levels of motoric complexity. Conclusions: This investigation supported the proposed framework of motoric complexity.

As all children demonstrated differences in speech performance across levels of motoric complexity, it was proposed that motoric complexity impacts both the developing system and those with speech impairment. With respect to clinical practice, this work highlights the importance of considering motoric properties of sound sequences when evaluating speech production skills and designing experimental and treatment stimuli.

Speech Motor Complexity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech Articulatory Control in Childhood Apraxia of Speech in a Novel Word–Learning Task Principle Investigator: Dr. Jenya Iuzinni-Seigel Organization: Marquette University State/Province/Country: Wisconsin Title: Sequence Learning in Children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) with and without Language and Motor Deficits: Does Time Between Sessions Impact Learning Motoric Complexity in CAS?

Subjects: Communication, motor, and procedural learning abilities were assessed in 48 children with CAS (n = 13), SSD (n = 20), and TD (n = 15), between 43 and 97 months age (Mean = 66 months, SD = 12 months). Results: Overall children with CAS demonstrated slower reaction time compared to the control groups of children with Typical Development (TD) and Speech Sound Disorders (SSD).

On average, children with CAS required an increased number of exposures to the sequence to demonstrate procedural learning, consistent with the high production frequency typically required during treatment to make learning gains.

Children in the CAS group also evidenced poor motor performance scoring in the “significant motor difficulty” range on the Aiming and Catching, Manual Dexterity and Balance components of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2nd Edition. By contrast, group level data from the TD and SSD groups showed performance within the normal range on these components.

The CAS group was also characterized by poor language performance and scores in the disordered range on subtests that tap grammar (i.e., Word Structure, Sentence Structure/Sentence Comprehension, and Recalling Sentences).

A subset of children from each group also demonstrated a distinct and unexpected pattern wherein they evidenced an uptick in reaction time during the second sequenced block rather than faster reaction times on each sequenced block.

Children in the TD and SSD groups with this pattern did not demonstrate substantive procedural learning at the end of 5 sequenced blocks, whereas the subgroup of children with CAS did, possibly suggesting distinct underlying causes for this pattern in each subgroup.

Conclusions: Our participants with CAS tended to evidence slower reaction times and required more exposures to the sequence to demonstrate procedural learning compared to peers with SSD and TD; in general, however, they did demonstrate learning over the course of the 5 practice blocks. These findings are consistent with the need for high production frequency during treatment sessions for children in this population.

The high proportion of children with motor and grammatical impairments in our CAS group also provides support for a comprehensive approach to assessment and treatment in order for children with CAS to thrive.

Motor Performance in Children With Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Speech Sound Disorders Principle Investigator: Dr. Edwin Maas Other Investigator: Dr. Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann, Dr. Kathy Jakielski, and Dr. Ruth Stoeckel Organization: Temple University State/Province/Country: Pennsylvania Title: Bang for Your Buck: A Systematic Investigation of Amount and Intensity of Practice for Children with Apraxia of Speech Subjects: 6 children with CAS, ages 4;7 to 11;3 Results: 4 children showed an advantage for high amount of practice, 1 showed an opposite effect, and 1 showed no condition difference.

For distribution, 4 children showed a clear advantage for massed over distributed practice post treatment; 1 showed an opposite pattern, and 1 showed no clear difference. Follow-up revealed a similar pattern. All children demonstrated treatment effects (larger gains for treated than untreated items).

Conclusions: High practice amount and massed practice were associated with more robust speech motor learning in most children with CAS, compared to low amount and distributed practice respectively.

Bang for your buck: A single-case experimental design study of practice amount and distribution in treatment for childhood apraxia of speech Principle Investigator: Dr. Heather Rusiewicz Organization: Duquesne University State/Province/Country: Pennsylvania Title: Examining the Impact of Gestures in the Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech Subjects: 10 individuals with childhood apraxia of speech enrolled in the primary investigation ranging from 3-21 years.

Single subject design study: According to the perceptual ratings of the treating clinician and twenty-eight naïve listeners, a 21 year old woman with persisting childhood apraxia of speech demonstrated improved speech sound accuracy as a function of the manual mimicry/multisensory therapy (i.e., hand gestures that mirrored the configuration of the speech movements in space and time) for the production of /r/.

Case study: This case study focused specifically on the use of gestural cues in the treatment of speech movement targets for nine children with CAS between the ages of 3;2 and 8;9 (M=5;5; SD=23 months).

Manual gesture cues that are spatiotemporally analogous to the target speech sound (i.e., manual mimicry gesture cues) were used within a multisensory therapy approach to enhance speech sound accuracy for five young children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).

An additional four children with CAS were also provided similar multisensory therapy, but with only the clinician using pointing gestures to the clinician’s mouth, instead of manual mimicry gesture cues. Findings indicated that the manual mimicry gesture group demonstrated signs of improvement for all target phonemes, both in treated and untreated contexts.

The largest gains occurred between baseline and the 6th session for all targeted phonemes, however, decreased accuracy was observed for all phonemes at the 12th session and then at the maintenance session. There was little to no improvement noted for unrelated phonemes that were not a focus of therapy.

Conclusions: These data offer preliminary support for the incorporation of manual mimicry gestural cues in therapy for CAS and other SSDs. Manual mimicry gestures potentially benefit learning within the therapeutic context because of the coordination and mutual influence of speech and hand movements, as well as the advantage of embodiment (i.e., movement can enhance learning and retention).

Additionally, gestures offer a no-cost technique that can be produced by the client themselves and may reduce the amount of instruction and cognitive load required during therapy. Particularly important for the treatment of CAS, manual mimicry gestures are dynamic and continuous and can mirror speech movement gesture sequences, rather than single, static phonemes.

Additional study of the integration of manual mimicry cues in the treatment of CAS and other speech sound disorders (SSD) will offer insight into both evidence based practices related to SSDs, as well as the underlying mechanism of spatiotemporal entrainment of speech and body movements.

The Effect of Hand Gesture Cues Within the Treatment of /r/ for a College-Aged Adult With Persisting Childhood Apraxia of Speech Principle Investigator: Dr. Tricia McCabe Other Investigators: Jonathan Preston, PhD, CPSP Syracuse University & Haskins Laboratories Research Organization: University of Sydney State/Province/Country: Sydney, Australia Title: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial Comparing Ultrasound Biofeedback Treatment with Rapid Syllable Transition Training (ReST) in Children with CAS Subjects: 15 children were randomly allocated to receive one of the treatments (two groups) and 14 children completed the treatment.

The children ranged from 6-13 years of age. Results: All children in both groups made progress on the items that were treated. Some children in both groups made more progress than others.

These children were older and had fewer speech problems that the younger or more severe children. Conclusions: Clinicians and parents should choose the treatment which best addresses their child’s needs. If the child predominantly needs to improve production of sounds, ultrasound feedback is a useful way to teach a child how to make sounds that depend on a particular tongue shape.

If the child predominantly needs to learn to speak smoothly with the right rhythm, the ReST treatment can be used to address this issue. A randomized control trial comparing ultrasound visual feedback and ReST (Rapid Syllable Transition Training) to improve speech in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).

Principle Investigator: Dr. Karen Froud Research Organization: Teachers College, Columbia University State/Province/Country: New York Title: Neural Correlates of Speech-Sound Representation in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech Subjects: 8 children with CAS who met study criteria and 6 control participants matched to the CAS participants on age and SES Results: The study aimed to examine the brain responses of children with CAS when they are listening to speech sounds, other kinds of complex sounds that don’t carry linguistic information, and simple sounds like tones.

By doing this, the investigators hoped to understand more about how children with CAS perceive and process speech. Conclusions: The study results show that children who have CAS do show different kinds of brain activation in response to speech sounds, compared to their typically-developing peers.

In particular, it seems that children with speech sound production difficulties use both sides of the brain to handle speech sound recognition, while children who do not have CAS use the left hemisphere of the brain only, which is known to be specialized for speech and language. These findings suggest that there is more to CAS than just a problem with producing speech.

Mismatch Negativity Responses in Children With a Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) Principle Investigator: Dr. Susan Rvachew Other Investigator: Dr. Caroline Erdos Research Organization: McGill University State/Province/Country: Quebec Title: Comparison of Alternative Prepractice Conditions in the Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech using a Single Subject Randomization Design Subjects: For this study we recruited English-speaking children from SLP