| Children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) need intensive and accurate practice to establish an accurate motor plan and improve their speech production. Computer-led practice led to a greater quantity of practice and was preferred over parentled practice. Further knowledge regarding children's accuracy of speech during independent practice is needed to determine if computer-led practice is a viable practice tool. Twelve children diagnosed with CAS, between 3-0 and 7-11 years of age, participated in speech practice during computer-led, parent-led, and clinician-led practice. Comparisons of perceptual accuracy of consonants and vowels, acoustical accuracy of stops, vowels, and fricatives, and variability of stops, vowels, and fricatives were examined.;The first study found no significant differences between perceptual accuracy of consonants and vowels during the three practice conditions. Additionally, speech productions in the computer-led condition led to greater precision in back sounds and fewer out-of-class substitutions and deletion errors compared to the parent-led and clinician-led conditions. Therefore, computer-led practice led to speech productions that were as accurate as current practice.;The second study found vowel productions were consistent across all three conditions. Production of fricatives were consistent across all three conditions, with greater accuracy in the computer- and clinician-led condition on two fricatives compared to the parent-led condition. There were no significant differences in over half of the stop productions. The computer- and clinician-led conditions led to the longest durations, which may have led to increased accuracy, while the parent-led condition led to the shortest durations. Overall, the greatest variability occurred in the parent-led condition across all manners of production, followed by the clinician-led condition, and the computer-led condition revealed the least variability. These findings suggest that computer-led practice led to speech productions that were comparable or better than clinician-led and parent-led conditions.;These studies provide evidence that computer-led speech practice is a viable practice tool for children with CAS to achieve accurate speech productions. |
