Rapid syllable transition treatment (ReST) in children with speech motor delay: case studies

Abstract

ABSTRACT Speech Motor Delay (SMD) is characterized by difficulties in motor execution, resulting in unintelligible speech, with changes in articulatory precision, stability, voice, and prosody, as well as reduced articulatory dissociation and excessive movements for age. The objective of this study was to describe, through four longitudinal case studies, the performance of Brazilian children with SMD submitted to the Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST), verifying acquisition, retention, and generalization. Four monolingual children, aged five to eight years and diagnosed with SMD, participated. The intervention was conducted via synchronous telepractice, twice a week, over six weeks. Probes of trained and untrained pseudowords, sentences, real words, and control items were applied at different stages of therapy. The results showed progressive improvement in all evaluated aspects. Significant gains were observed in phoneme accuracy, lexical stress, and coarticulation, confirming acquisition, retention, and generalization. It is concluded that ReST is effective for children with SMD, including when applied through telepractice, representing a promising evidence-based therapeutic alternative grounded in motor learning principles and supported by linguistically controlled stimuli selection.