The Dynamic Therapy RCT is a clinical trial that will examine the efficacy of a treatment used to treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech – Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC or Dynamic Therapy). This research project aims to improve the speech outcomes of children with severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).
Dynamic Tactile and Temporal Cueing
Dynamic Therapy is a treatment developed to treat CAS known in other studies as Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC). The therapy targets a core set of meaningful words which contain sounds that the child can already produce (e.g., “Hi daddy”) and sounds which are emerging. Within a session, the Speech Pathologist uses a range of cues to help the child produce a word. These cues include tactile cues and verbal prompts for children to “look at me, listen to me, say what I say”.
DTTC has been shown to be effective in small scale studies with children who have moderate – profound speech impairments caused by childhood apraxia of speech. This is the first large scale randomised control trial to evaluate DTTC compared with usual care.
If you would like more general information about DTTC you can have a look at the
https://childapraxiatreatment.org/dttc/ website for an overview.
Who is involved?
The University of Sydney has partnered with seven Universities, two NSW Health sites, a research institute to carry out this clinical trial. Our clinical sites were located in:
- Sydney (Camperdown, The University of Sydney, Australia)
- Canberra (University of Canberra, Australia)
- Devonport (Tasmania, Australia)
- Melbourne (Parkville, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia)
- Perth (Bentley, Curtin University, Australia)
- Townsville (Douglas, James Cook University, Australia)
- Syracuse (Syracuse University, New York, United States)
- Philadelphia (Temple University, Pennsylvania, United States)
Click here to meet our team.
Who could participate?
We were looking for children who:
- Have a diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech
- Are 3 to 7 years and 11 months at their assessment with us
- Have a speech impairment in the moderate-severe range
- Have normal hearing and vision with or without corrective devices (e.g., glasses, hearing aids)
- Speak English at home as their primary language
Children who participated were randomized to either receive DTTC from the research team or keep going with their usual care. We also asked parents to complete surveys about their usual care and speech pathology experiences.
Sponsorship & Funding
This three-year project is being sponsored by The University of Sydney.
The project is being funded by the
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the University of Sydney DVCR COVID19 Support Fund
This project is registered with the
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): Trial No 381057