Ways to advance speech treatment research in developmental dysarthria

We all are aware that speech treatment in developmental motor speech disorders is an under-researched area. We also know how important it is to find out whether current treatments help children to communicate more successfully. However, one of the main challenges we are facing is the lack of detailed information on how the few treatment studies that were conducted were designed and carried out. This lack does not just affect research by making it more difficult to repeat treatments to confirm its success for other speakers. It also means that speech and language therapists, who want to apply the approaches described in the literature, have very little information that could assist them in understanding what made those approaches successful.

This issue was the starting point for Erika Levy’s most recent article published in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Unlike most articles, which usually focus on outcome and improvements in speech, it details how speech treatments were carried out in the Speech Production and Perception Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. In her article, Levy focuses on two approaches that were successfully used in the past to improve speech function in children with CP and dysarthria:

-Speech Systems Approach

-Lee Silverman Voice Treatment

Both approaches featured in previous blog entries. The former aims at improving the functioning, coordination and control of breathing, phonation and articulation, whereas the latter focuses on producing loud and clear speech. For both approaches Levy describes treatment protocols which include specific information on preparation and progression of treatment sessions, session structure, the tasks that were used, and how children can be motivated to do these tasks repeatedly.

The article also describes how best to record speech, and how these speech samples could be used for acoustic analyses. It further refers to a range of games and apps that could be used to keep children engaged in the therapy process as well as provide feedback on their performance.

By providing treatment specifics and strategies Levy intends to reduce some barriers that exist when it comes to researching speech treatment in developmental dysarthria. I do hope that this article will trigger further clinical research with the ultimate aim of designing treatments that will help children to be successful communicators.

Levy, E. S. (2014). Implementing two treatment approaches to childhood dysarthria. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Early Online, 1–11.