The PROMPT Approach to the Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Ilaria Marinelli
This paper examines the application of the PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) approach in the speech-language therapy of a 9-year-10-month-old child diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) in the context of a complex neurodevelopmental disorder. The primary goal of the intervention was to improve motor speech control and increase the patient’s communicative participation. Motor assessment was conducted using the System Analysis Observation (SAO, Hayden 1995) and the Motor Speech Hierarchy (MSH, Hayden 1986), identifying three intervention priorities: mandibular control, labio-facial control and sequential movements. Treatment lasted 3 years and 4 months, with two weekly sessions, and adopted a holistic, multidimensional approach integrating physical-sensory, cognitive-linguistic, and socio-emotional domains within functional communicative contexts. Results show significant progress across multiple domains: improved mandibular, labio-facial, and lingual motor control; a shift from vocalizations to 2-3 element sentences with an expanded lexical repertoire; increased spontaneous communicative initiative and active participation in communicative exchanges. This study supports the value of a structured, integrated motor approach for complex CAS cases.
Keywords
PROMPT; Childhood Apraxia of Speech; Neurodevelopmental Disorder; Speech-language Intervention; Motor Learning.
