We don’t know how to treat childhood apraxia of speech

That’s the conclusion from a Cochrane review.

First, the details.

• The objective was to assess the treatment by Speech and Language Pathologists(s)/Speech and Language Therapists for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).
• A literature search revealed 31 abstracts that appeared to be worth including in the review.

And, the results.

• All 31 articles were excluded because they were so poorly designed.

Oops!

The bottom line?
There were no well-controlled treatment studies of CAS. So, it was impossible to identify the best treatment.

More alarming is this statement by the Ad Hoc Committee on CAS. “Review of the research literature indicates that, at present, there is no validated list of diagnostic features of CAS that differentiates this symptom complex from other types of childhood speech sound disorders.”

For the record, CAS is a speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits (eg, abnormal reflexes, abnormal tone).

1/22/09 21:28 JR