Speech Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, P.O. Box 170, Lidcombe, New South Wales 1825, Australia.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2010 Oct;53(5):1227-45. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0130). Epub 2010 Aug 26.
Dysprosody is considered a core feature of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), especially impaired production of lexical stress. Few studies have tested the effects of intervention for dysprosody. This Phase II study with 3 children investigated the efficacy of a treatment targeting improved control of relative syllable durations in 3-syllable nonwords representing strong-weak (SW) and weak-strong (WS) stress patterns (e.g., BAtigu or baTIgu). Treatment sessions were structured along the principles of motor learning (PML) approach.
Three children, age 7 to 10 years, with mild to moderate CAS and normal language development participated in an intensive 3-week treatment. Within-participant designs with multiple baselines across participants and behaviors were used to examine acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of skill.
All children improved in their ability to control relative duration of syllables in SW and WS nonwords. Improvement was also noted in control of loudness and pitch contrasts. Treatment effects generalized to untreated nonword stimuli, but minimal change was seen in production of real words.
Findings support the efficacy of this approach for improving production of lexical stress contrasts. Structuring the intervention according to the PML approach likely stimulated strong maintenance and generalization effects.
韵律障碍被认为是儿童言语运动障碍（CAS）的核心特征，特别是词汇重音的产生受损。很少有研究测试过韵律障碍干预的效果。这项针对 3 名儿童的 II 期研究调查了一种针对改善三音节非词中相对音节时长控制的治疗方法的疗效，这些非词代表强弱（SW）和弱强（WS）重音模式（例如，BAtigu 或 baTIgu）。治疗课程是按照运动学习（PML）方法的原则来组织的。
3 名年龄在 7 至 10 岁之间、患有轻度至中度 CAS 且语言发育正常的儿童参加了为期 3 周的强化治疗。采用跨参与者和行为的多个基线的参与者内设计来检查技能的获得、泛化和维持。
所有儿童在控制 SW 和 WS 非词中音节相对时长的能力上都有所提高。在响度和音高对比的控制方面也有了明显的改善。治疗效果泛化到未治疗的非词刺激，但在真实单词的产生方面几乎没有变化。
研究结果支持这种方法对改善词汇重音对比产生的疗效。根据 PML 方法来组织干预可能会刺激强烈的维持和泛化效果。
