Speech Production Enhancement Using Augmentative Communication for Kids
NCT ID: NCT07173049
Last Updated: 2025-12-17
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
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NOT_YET_RECRUITING
NA
100 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2026-01-31
2029-06-30
Brief Summary
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* To what extent can speech supplementation improve intelligibility in children with CP compared with habitual speech produced without speech supplementation?
* How much intelligibility change is necessary for meaningful improvement when children use speech supplementation strategies?
Participants will:
* complete speech and language assessments
* complete a speech pre-test using habitual speech
* learn a speech supplementation strategy with training from a speech-language pathologist
* complete a speech post-test using the speech supplementation strategy
Detailed Description
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In this study, children will first participate in a set of baseline assessment measures, which will include the production of a corpus of 60 sentences (referred to as "habitual speech"). Then, children will learn to use the speech supplementation strategy through one-on-one clinician modeling, teaching, and practice. When children have mastered the strategy on a set of practice sentences, they will complete a post-test in which they produce the same set of elicited sentences a second time using speech supplementation.
Pre-test and post-test speech samples will then be played to two groups of listeners. One group will orthographically transcribe the words produced by children in both conditions (habitual and supplemented). Listener transcriptions in each condition will be scored as correct or incorrect based on whether they matched the intended word. Average percent of words identified correctly will be obtained from 2 listener for each child and each speaking condition as measures of speech intelligibility. The difference between habitual speech (pre-test) and supplemented speech (post-test) will be examined to quantify the effects of the speech supplementation on intelligibility.
The second set of listeners will hear the same speech samples as the first set (habitual speech and supplemented speech), but they will make ratings of whether one of the conditions seems more understandable than the other, and if so, they will rate how much better using a 7-point Likert scale.
These two sets of data from listeners will enable us to measure the minimum detectable difference in speech intelligibility and then the minimal clinically important difference based on listener ratings. Together these measures will enable us to determine how much change in intelligibility is necessary in order for clinically meaningful improvement. The hypotheses are as follows:
1. speech supplementation will result in increased speech intelligibility relative to habitual speech.
2. the minimal clinically important difference in intelligibility scores to consider the speech supplementation strategy "successful" will vary depending on child severity, with more severely speech impaired children requiring a larger improvement to achieve a clinically meaningful change.
Conditions
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Study Design
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NA
SINGLE_GROUP
TREATMENT
NONE
Study Groups
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speech supplementation
Children will complete a pre-test on their speech prior to learning speech supplementation strategy use, and will be taught to use speech supplementation through one-on-one teaching. They will then complete a post test on their speech while using speech supplementation.
AAC Speech supplementation
The speech supplementation intervention involves learning to point to pictures, words, or letters on a communication board while simultaneously producing speech. Children will spend up to 30 minutes learning to use the strategy in one- on-one interaction with a speech therapist and demonstrate mastery by using the strategy successfully on a series of test stimuli.
Interventions
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AAC Speech supplementation
The speech supplementation intervention involves learning to point to pictures, words, or letters on a communication board while simultaneously producing speech. Children will spend up to 30 minutes learning to use the strategy in one- on-one interaction with a speech therapist and demonstrate mastery by using the strategy successfully on a series of test stimuli.
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
* Age between 7 and 17 years
* Clinical dysarthria with speech intelligibility between 10-85 percent
* Able to produce connected speech in English, with a minimum utterance length of 3 words
* Able to use hands to point to items on a communication board
* Cognitive/language skills that enable basic picture identification on a communication board
* Pass pure tone hearing screening
* Vision impairment that precludes being able to see items on a communication board.
* Not suitable for participation due to other reasons at the discretion of the investigators.
7 Years
17 Years
ALL
No
Sponsors
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National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
NIH
University of Wisconsin, Madison
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Principal Investigators
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Katherine C Hustad, PhD
Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Locations
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University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center
Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Countries
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Central Contacts
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References
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Korkalainen J, McCabe P, Smidt A, Morgan C. Motor Speech Interventions for Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023 Jan 12;66(1):110-125. doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00375. Epub 2023 Jan 9.
Levy ES, Chang YM, Ancelle JA, McAuliffe MJ. Acoustic and Perceptual Consequences of Speech Cues for Children With Dysarthria. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2017 Jun 22;60(6S):1766-1779. doi: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0274.
Hustad KC, Lee J. Changes in speech production associated with alphabet supplementation. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2008 Dec;51(6):1438-50. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2008/07-0185). Epub 2008 Jul 29.
Hustad KC, Jones T, Dailey S. Implementing speech supplementation strategies: effects on intelligibility and speech rate of individuals with chronic severe dysarthria. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2003 Apr;46(2):462-74.
Stipancic KL, Yunusova Y, Berry JD, Green JR. Minimally Detectable Change and Minimal Clinically Important Difference of a Decline in Sentence Intelligibility and Speaking Rate for Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018 Nov 8;61(11):2757-2771. doi: 10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0366.
Sakash A, Mahr TJ, Natzke PEM, Hustad KC. Effects of Rate Manipulation on Intelligibility in Children With Cerebral Palsy. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2020 Feb 7;29(1):127-141. doi: 10.1044/2019_AJSLP-19-0047. Epub 2019 Dec 23.
Other Identifiers
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A481800
Identifier Type: OTHER
Identifier Source: secondary_id
L&S/COMMUN SCI & DISORDERS
Identifier Type: OTHER
Identifier Source: secondary_id
Protocol Version 7/21/2025
Identifier Type: OTHER
Identifier Source: secondary_id
2025-0885
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id