Effect of oral stimulation by using 3d printed appliance series to evaluate speech and associated oral sensory difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Background: Oral sensory problems in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is mainly due to a lack of sensory-motor synchronization and incomplete neuromuscular development. Direct oral stimulation can play a significant role as a part of oral therapy, because the speech outcome by Speech Therapy (ST) has subjective variation and requires a long period of time. The other oral muscular therapy has a lack of specificity and sensitivity. However, direct oral stimulation in the form of appliance therapy has not yet been investigated. newlineAim: To explore the precise role of Speech-Sensory Appliance (SSA) on speech disorder and associated oral sensory problems in ASD children. newlineMethods:- In this single-arm, randomized controlled experiment (REF/2020/09/036975, www.ctri.nic.in), 42 ASD-diagnosed children between the ages of 4 and 11 will be involved. The study participants were randomly split into two groups of 21 each. While the other group will be exposed to SSA+ST therapy, one of the groups will undergo SSA therapy. The speech therapist was unaware of the bunch of children who received both therapies (blind). Analyses of the results were conducted using articulation errors, phonological errors, and prosody for speech errors and The feeding behaviour was assessed using a visual analog scale newlineResults: Intergroup analysis observed highly significant for both the groups from baseline to end-line. However, for articulation and phonological errors, Group 2 was more significant than Group 1. Both groups observed equal improvements for prosody and feeding behaviour newlineConclusion: Combined therapy (SSD+ST) has more improvements for articulation and phonological errors than SSD alone. There was no significant difference in both groups for prosody and feeding behaviour. Both therapies observed equalimprovements newline. newlineKey-words: Oral therapy, Feeding behaviour, Speech therapy, Picky eaters, Oral muscular therapy newline