Treatment Program for Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Karen Czarnik

Ages: 3-10Grades: PreK-5

Apply the principles of motor planning to the treatment of childhood apraxia of speech with this program, complete with detailed instructions; 2000 stimulus pictures; and tactile-kinesthetic cue cards.

The 65-page manual shows you how to establish motor learning for different syllable shapes and pattern sequences. Incorporate research-based principles into therapy organization and goal selection and:

• select target sounds and words to build intelligibility and promote easier acquisition
• set up a practice schedule to maximize motor learning
• use blocked practice to establish new motor sequences
• use random practice to facilitate generalization of learned motor sequences
• adjust the type and frequency of cues/modeling
• adjust the type and frequency of performance feedback
• incorporate prosody training early in the treatment program
• use tactile/kinesthetic cue cards to support the establishment of movement sequences for speech

The stimulus cards are customized to apraxia therapy with:

• 325 picture cards (three pictures per side for 1950 pictures)
• 30 picture cards for multisyllabic words (one picture per side for 60 total pictures)
• 12 tactile-kinesthetic cue cards

The tactile-kinesthetic cue cards develop sound blending and syllable transitions. Students produce a variety of phoneme sequences while moving one finger along a visual representation of the movement sequence. These cards are coated, so you can write target sound sequences on them with a dry-erase marker. The cue cards represent the following hierarchy of syllable structure:

1. CV words
2. VC words
3. CVC words
4. Initial strident/continuant
5. Final strident/continuant
6. Medial consonants
7. Backward chaining: /s/ blends
8. Backward chaining: /l/, /r/ blends
9. Three-syllable words
10. Four-syllable words
11. Repetitions: caterpillar
12. Repetitions: dinosaur

Students progress and:

• establish a wide variety of phonetic movements/motor plans
• stabilize sounds that are produced inconsistently
• establish a core, meaningful vocabulary
• speak with smoother syllable transitions