Recruiting

Speech Supplementation

Sponsor:

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Code:

NCT07173049

Conditions

Cerebral Palsy (CP)

Intelligibility, Speech

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 7 - 17

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

AAC Speech supplementation

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if speech supplementation can improve speech intelligibility in children ages 7 to 17 years with cerebral palsy. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • To what extent can speech supplementation improve intelligibility in children with CP compared with habitual speech produced without speech supplementation?
  • How much intelligibility change is necessary for meaningful improvement when children use speech supplementation strategies?

Participants will:

  • complete speech and language assessments
  • complete a speech pre-test using habitual speech
  • learn a speech supplementation strategy with training from a speech-language pathologist
  • complete a speech post-test using the speech supplementation strategy
  • complete a speech repetition task where specific words are emphasized (emphatic stress)
  • use the previously learned speech supplementation strategy + emphasis on specific words while producing a set of sentences

Conditions

Cerebral Palsy (CP)

Intelligibility, Speech

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Study ID

NCT07173049

Start date

Jul 27, 2026

Status verified date

May, 2026

Completion date

Jul, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Mar, 2029

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 7 - 17

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Medical diagnosis of cerebral palsy, or a similar, related condition that affects early motor development and presents as a chronic motor disability
  • Age between 7 and 17 years
  • Clinical dysarthria with speech intelligibility between 10-85 percent
  • Able to produce connected speech in English, with a minimum utterance length of 3 words
  • Able to use hands to point to items on a communication board
  • Cognitive/language skills that enable basic picture identification on a communication board
  • Pass pure tone hearing screening

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Failure to meet all inclusion criteria.
  • Vision impairment that precludes being able to see items on a communication board.
  • Not suitable for participation due to other reasons at the discretion of the investigators.

Study Design

Enrollment

100 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: speech supplementation

Children will complete a pre-test on their speech prior to learning speech supplementation strategy use, and will be taught to use speech supplementation through one-on-one teaching. They will then complete a post test on their speech while using speech supplementation.

Interventions

AAC Speech supplementation

The speech supplementation intervention involves learning to point to pictures, words, or letters on a communication board while simultaneously producing speech. Children will spend up to 30 minutes learning to use the strategy in one- on-one interaction with a speech therapist and demonstrate mastery by using the strategy successfully on a series of test stimuli.

Primary outcome measure

  • Change in speech intelligibility scores from pre- to post- intervention as measured by listener transcription of speech samples [ Time Frame: Before and after intervention within one session in a single day 1 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

WISC Lab

608-263-5822speak@waisman.wisc.edu

Heather Mabie

608-263-5822hmabie@wisc.edu

Locations

University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center

Recruiting

Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53705

More Information

Sponsor

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Last update posted

Aug 3, 2026

Last verified

May, 2026

Keywords

  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Speech
  • Intelligibility
  • Speech supplementation
  • Augmentative and alternative communication

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Wisconsin, Madison on 2026-08-03.