Telehealth intervention and childhood apraxia of speech: a scoping review

Background: In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, many speech-language pathologists have transitioned from in-person service delivery to online environments. As such, there is an urgent need to inform clinicians on the availability of efficacious and effective telehealth interventions for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Objectives: This review was informed by the following clinical question: Is providing intervention remotely through telehealth as efficacious and effective as in-person therapy for treating CAS? Methods, eligibility criteria, and sources of evidence: Eight databases and seven search engines were searched for articles to identify intervention studies that have investigated the efficacy and/or effectiveness of treating CAS remotely. Search criteria was restricted to papers with children under 18 years of age, published in the English language between 1993 and 2020. Results: Two studies were found to meet our inclusion criteria. A phase I study employed a multiple baseline across participants design to investigate the efficacy of the Rapid Syllable Transition treatment via telehealth. The second study assessed the feasibility of adopting a novel system for the remote administration of the Nuffield Dyspraxia Program-Third Edition. Based on the Oxford hierarchy Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, both studies are level IV (case-series/case-control), and therefore deemed low level evidence. Results showed limited but promising outcomes when CAS therapy is conducted remotely. Conclusion: There is limited, low-level evidence indicating positive outcomes for the remote treatment of CAS via telehealth. The scarcity of data available warrants a need for large-scale randomized control trials and controlled clinical trials.