Perspectives of Indian Speech-language Pathologists towards the assessment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is an articulation impairment of neurogenic origin, specifically affecting the planning and programming of speech movements. There is a lack of consensus on the diagnostic indicators of CAS and the limited precision of existing assessment tools for CAS. Further, there is limited literature on the perspectives of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) towards the clinical practices in CAS. Therefore, the current study explores the perspectives and practices among Indian SLPs regarding the assessment of CAS. The study followed a questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey design with 114 SLPs participating across India. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase I included the development and validation of the questionnaire, while phase II included the administration of the same followed by data analysis. The majority of SLPs (79.8%) reported conducting assessments for suspected CAS, while 63% reported being aware of standardized Indian tools for the same. Most SLPs used informal methods (83%) and standardized English protocols (70%) for CAS assessment, with 35% of them using local norms. Oromotor skills using non-speech (84%) and speech (88%) tasks and assessing overall speech intelligibility (78%) were commonly used for CAS assessment. Few SLPs (31%) felt adequately prepared for CAS assessment by their educational training, while most SLPs (53%) felt somewhat confident. Clinical experience, colleague discussions, and referring journal articles were common knowledge sources for practice. This survey underscores the importance of integrating empirical research into clinical practices for CAS assessment in India.