Improving communication in children with cerebral palsy - a validation study.

What is it about?

A previous single subject design study demonstrated that intensive voice treatment could improve communication abilities in select children with cerebral palsy. We were able to validate those initial findings in this second study. We demonstrated similar outcomes in improvements in speech and how listeners perceived speech for some of the children with cerebral palsy after the treatment. We also expanded our outcomes measures to explore parent perspectives regarding communication and the experience with speech treatment.

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Why is it important?

Beyond validating findings in our initial study, the extensive parent interviews included here provided unique insights into the the challenges and hopes parents have for their children to be able to successfully communicate. Before therapy, stresses faced by parents included the effort required by family members and children to successfully communicate. Further, parents were discouraged at the limited speech services provided to their children which placed an extra burden on them to fill the gap. After treatment, parents observed improvements in their children's communication. They also were notably happy with the increased confidence their children had in communicating. An unexpected new stress that was added post-treatment was "will my child maintain this improvement?" and the the challenge of keeping up daily speech practice.

Perspectives