Treatment Efficacy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Raijan Peters, Verrazzano Class of 2024, complete major in English Linguistics and minor in Speech Language Pathology 

A review of the literature for my capstone began in the spring semester of my junior year in 2023. I felt sure that this research would make a difference in my field. I knew that I had to reach out to someone that knows a lot about the field, but who also has firsthand experience with those who struggle with all types of speech. My mentor, Lorenza Colonna is a licensed Speech and Language Pathologist and offered up so much valuable information in the research and in the writing.

As knowledgeable as my classes were throughout my undergraduate degree, I realized that the field of Speech and Language Pathology is a vast profession in which I could not possibly know everything about every disorder and pathologies. Professor Colonna gave me time to research Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) so that I could know the topic thoroughly.

After researching this topic for myself, my mentor and I thought about how we wanted this topic to be unique. We decided that we wouldn’t only research CAS, but we would look into which treatments are the most effective, in the sense that the patient is able to maintain the skills that they learned well after therapy is done. Professor Colonna informed me that treatments for CAS have been researched before but what makes our research unique is that we are focusing on treatment plans that are the most effective long term. She provided me with an article entitled “A Systematic Review of Treatment Outcomes for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech”, that outlined the population we would be focused on and each treatment plan that was used. There were six different treatment approaches that we researched, some being motor based, linguistic based, and then a treatment called AAC.

Before sifting through this research, my mentor made sure that I looked up each and every treatment that was used in this research so I would have my own background knowledge. Once this was done, I dove into the real research with the article. Each treatment plan was outlined in a very detailed and specific way how it was implemented, how long the treatment was given before it ended, and how long after treatment the patient still displayed skills learned in therapy (maintenance). My mentor and I were able to compare and contrast each treatment plan to see for ourselves which ones were maintained the longest.

As an aspiring Speech and Language Pathologist going to graduate school in the fall, this capstone has been nothing short of valuable and significant to not only my knowledge but to the research in the field. Speech and Language Pathologist clinicians make evidence-based decisions off of the most recent research, and it is important to be privy to every single discovery made in the field.

In addition, not only is it important to develop my proficiency in the field, but doing a capstone of this measure helped me to write in a professional manner. As I was writing, I had to organize all of my thoughts into sections, use clinical terms, and had to keep my thoughts as concise as possible. These are characteristics/ skills I know I will need in graduate school.

When we began this process, every time I wrote a section my mentor and I met on zoom to discuss edits. These edits were made, and I would send her the revisions. My professor provided me with notable edits every time that took my writing and understanding to the next level.

Throughout this entire process, my professor exhibited so much patience and offered copious amounts of support. Having a Speech and Language Pathologist as my mentor, Professor Colonna knew exactly how to organize and edit my thoughts which led all the way to this point.

As for how this project could be developed further if I were to continue, I would expand the years which I focused my research on. Additionally, I would expand my research to not just mono-lingual English-speaking children, but it would be interesting to do the research on children who know different languages, or children who are not English speaking. Ultimately, this experience was rewarding and memorable.