I’ve been a bit of a hiatus as of late, but now its time to update you on a few research studies that have been published the last few months. For today’s post lets look at the use of MIT for Apraxia and a new study on NICU-MT. 

Martikainen and Korpilahti (2011) utilized Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) with a child who has apraxia of speech. They compared the Touch-Cue method (tactile cues to the face for consonants) to MIT (ABAC design, where MIT was “B”).  Results (from an articulation test) indicated that sound production errors decreased and sequencing improved after 6 weeks of MIT.

Overall, this was a well done case study. The design is clear and they used measures that could be replicated. The procure for the two treatments could have been more clearly explained. For example, there is no information about the intervals used in MIT.  Also, it is not clear who is providing MIT treatment (assumed SLP). Since this was a case study, the results can’t be generalized.

Standley et al. (2011) published data gathered over one year in the NICU. The researchers analyzed the data to determine characteristics of infants that were referred to NICU-MT and the outcomes of treatment (weight gain and days to discharge). Results indicated that infants that received NICU-MT gained more weight. Furthermore, infants that received NICU-MT and were born very prematurely were discharged sooner.

This is an exciting study because it looked at data from all the infants who were in the NICU in a particular year. This allows the researchers to do a nice post hoc analysis comparison between infants that received NICU-MT and infants under typical NICU care.

References:

Martikainen, A., & Korpilahti, P. (2011). Intervention for childhood apraxia of speech: A single-case study. Child Language, Teaching and Therapy, 27(2), 9-20. Sage Online.

Standley, J. M., & Swedberg, O. (2011). NICU music therapy: Post hoc analysis of an early intervention clinical program. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 38(1), 36-40. doi: 10.1016/j.aip.2010.10.004