Assessment and Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech: An Inquiry into Knowledge and Experience of Speech-Language Pathologists

The present research aims to identify the assessment and treatment processes used by Iranian Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) and investigate the impact of their knowledge level and experience on their choice of assessment and treatment.

This research is a cross-sectional study using a survey design conducted on 260 SLPs with a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree and at least one year of experience of working with preschoolers. The CAS assessment and treatment were measured by a validated questionnaire, which was completed in person or online. 

The tests of Diadochokinesis (DDK) (66%), single-word speech sampling (58.1%), oral-motor assessment (54.6%), and connected speech sample analysis (53.1%) were the popular tests chosen by the participants. The treatment approaches indicated that Oral Motor Exercises (OMEs) (57.7%) were the only treatment for which over half of the participants voted. The experts chose phonologically-based treatments and Integrated Phonological Awareness (IPA), but the less-experienced participants were more interested in PROMPT (prompts for restructuring oral muscular phonetic targets). The majority of the participants (70.8%) believed that children with CAS make very slow progress and 21.9% declared that speech problems of such children persist through the school years.

The participants’ choice of assessment tasks is in line with the results of recent studies. However, opting for outdated treatments such as OME indicates a gap between the clinicians’ knowledge and experience in using evidence-based treatments.