Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with integrative speech therapy in a child with cerebral palsy: A case report

SummaryThe aim of this study was to describe the results of the first case combining integrative speech therapy with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over Broca's area in a child with cerebral palsy. The ABFW phonology test was used to analyze speech based on the Percentage of Correct Consonants (PCC) and Percentage of Correct Consonants – Revised (PCC-R). After treatment, increases were found in both PCC (Imitation: 53.63%–78.10%; Nomination: 53.19%–70.21%) and PPC-R (Imitation: 64.54%–83.63%; Nomination: 61.70%–77.65%). Moreover, reductions occurred in distortions, substitutions and improvement was found in oral performance, especially tongue mobility (AMIOFE-mobility before = 4 after = 7). The child demonstrated a clinically important improvement in speech fluency as shown in results of imitation number of correct consonants and phonemes acquire. Based on these promising findings, continuing research in this field should be conducted with controlled clinical trials.