Pediatric Speech Therapy Session Frequency and Speech Outcomes

Not Applicable

Active, not recruiting

• Conditions: Speech Therapy; Language Disorders in Children; Articulation Disorders in Children; Communication Disorder, Childhood; Pediatric; Mode of Therapy; Frequency of Therapy
• Interventions: Behavioral: Speech Therapy

• Registration Number: NCT05900180
• Lead Sponsor: Connecticut Children's Medical Center

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare speech therapy outcomes in children ages 18 months to 16 years who participate in weekly speech therapy with home programming versus every-other week speech therapy with home programming in outpatient speech therapy. The main question it aims to answer is: Does a change in how often speech therapy sessions are delivered show an increased benefit in language and articulation standardized test scores? Participants will be randomly assigned to either (1) weekly or (2) every-other-week speech therapy for a total of 8 sessions. Researchers will compare these two groups to see if there are differences in speech outcomes.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2023-01-01
• Study First Submitted: 2023-04-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-06-07
• Study First Posted: 2023-06-12
• Status Verified: 2025-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-05-01
• Last Update Posted: 2025-05-04
• Primary Completion: 2027-12-30
• Study Completion: 2027-12-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 39

Inclusion Criteria

• Medical order for speech therapy
• Patients eligible for speech therapy at Connecticut Children's (qualify for receptive, expressive language and/or articulation therapy)
• Diagnosis of communication disorder.ICD-10 codes will be utilized pertaining to expressive, receptive language and articulation disorders (ICD-10 code specific to patient: F80.0, F80.1, F80.2, F80.4, F80.9, R47.89, R41.841)
• Patient recommended for individual (i.e. not group) treatment
• 18 months to 16 years of age
• Completed 1 plan of care (POC) with a duration of 8 sessions
• Attended at least 80% of scheduled visits during their plan of care period (still completing 8 sessions of therapy, may have extended time to completion).
• Services for a full 8-session plan of care.

Exclusion Criteria

• • Seeking speech therapy care for treatment of disorders related to diagnosis of voice, feeding, fluency, and/or cognition
• Patient unable to complete standardized tests (EOWPVT-4, ROWPVT-4, GFTA-3, REEL-4)
• Patients in group speech therapy
• Patients younger than 18 months or older than 16 years of age
• Not willing to complete a full POC (8 sessions)
• Unable/unwilling to attend 80% of scheduled visits

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Every-other-week therapy with home programming	Speech Therapy	Receipt of standard speech therapy care (every-other-week) for 8.0 sessions
Weekly therapy with home programming	Speech Therapy	Receipt of speech therapy care (every week) for 8.0 sessions

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Receptive vocabulary skills	Baseline, immediately after treatment (up to 4 months)	Scores on the following standardized measure: Receptive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test- Fourth Edition (ROVPVT-4); Average Standard Score range is from 85-115; an increase in standard score indicates improvement in understanding vocabulary.
Change in Receptive and expressive early language skills	Baseline, immediately after treatment (up to 4 months)	Scores on the following standardized measures: Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale- Fourth Edition (REEL-4); Average Standard Score range is from 90-109; an increase in standard score indicates improvement in language ability score.
Change in Articulation and intelligibility	Baseline, immediately after treatment (up to 4 months)	Scores on the following standardized measures: Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation- Third Edition (GFTA-3) ; Average Standard Score range is from 86-114; an increase in standard score indicates improvement in intelligibility.
Change in Expressive vocabulary skills	Baseline, immediately after treatment (up to 4 months)	Scores on the following standardized measure: Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test- Fourth Edition (EOWPVT-4); Average Standard Score range is from 85-115; an increase in standard score indicates improvement in understanding or labeling vocabulary.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Home Exercise Plan (HEP) provision	up to 4 months	Parent-reported compliance with home therapy programming

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Connecticut Children's Medical Center; 🇺🇸 Hartford, Connecticut, United States