A treatment method or therapy approach is the program that the speech-language pathologist (SLP) will use to treat your child. Treatment methods can be developed by research teams or individual clinicians. Some therapy approaches require formal training and/or certification in order to use the approach. Some SLPs may not use a formal method or may use a combination of approaches. Ideally, a therapy approach should have research evidence that it is effective. This means that the method has been studied and does what it claims to do. Effective approaches typically have the following components:
What methods are used to treat CAS?
A number of approaches are used to treat CAS. Some of these programs have been studied for effectiveness and have been shown that they do what they claim to. Other programs have not yet been studied.
| Therapy Approach | Research Evidence | Designed to Treat | Age Range | More Information |
| Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) | Moderately strong | Moderate-Severe CAS | 2 years and above | DTTC |
| Rapid Syllable Transition Training (ReST) | Very strong | CAS and ataxic dysarthria | 4-12 years | ReST |
| Integrated Phonological Awareness Training (IPA) | Moderately strong | Speech-language impairment | 4-7 years | IPA |
| Nuffield Dyspraxia Program, Third Edition (NDP3) | Very strong | Severe speech sound disorders, including CAS | 3-7 years (but can be modified for older and younger) | NDP3 |
| Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT) | None for CAS yet (some evidence for less severe motor planning disorders) | Communication disorders | 6 months and older | The PROMPT Institute |
| The Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SLP) | None for CAS yet | Speech sound disorder including CAS and expressive language disorders | 2 years and older | K-SLP |
| The Speech-EZ Apraxia Program | None | CAS and phonological disorders | Not specified | The Speech-EZ Apraxia Program |
What is evidence-based treatment?
Evidence-based practice means that the therapist is using methods or techniques supported by research as effective for treating CAS. There are many different levels of evidence. Sufficient evidence of efficacy (effectiveness in a controlled condition such as a research study) means that the approach has been studied and the results published in a peer-reviewed publication. You can learn more about evidence-based treatment here.
What ages and disorders does the method treat?
Some methods are specifically designed to treat CAS and other methods are not. Regardless of what the approach is designed to treat, studies tell us what populations (ages of children with which diagnoses) the method effectively treats. Keep in mind that the severity of CAS changes over time, so the best therapy approach may change over time as well. For more information about how the severity of CAS changes over time, click here.
