The assessment of fidelity in a motor speech-treatment approach

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the application of the constructs of treatment fidelity for research and clinical practice for motor speech disorders, using the Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT) Fidelity Measure (PFM). Treatment fidelity refers to a set of procedures used to monitor and improve the validity and reliability of behavioral intervention. While the concept of treatment fidelity has been emphasized in medical and allied health sciences, documentation of procedures for the systematic evaluation of treatment fidelity in Speech-Language Pathology is sparse. METHODS The development and iterative process to improve the PFM, is discussed. Further, the PFM is evaluated against recommended measurement strategies documented in the literature. This includes evaluating the appropriateness of goals and objectives; and the training of speech-language pathologists, using direct and indirect procedures. Three expert raters scored the PFM to examine inter-rater reliability. RESULTS Three raters, blinded to each other's scores, completed fidelity ratings on three separate occasions. Inter-rater reliability, using Krippendorff's Alpha, was >80% for the PFM on the final scoring occasion. This indicates strong inter-rater reliability. CONCLUSION The development of fidelity measures for the training of service providers and treatment delivery is important in specialized treatment approaches where certain 'active ingredients' (e.g. specific treatment targets and therapeutic techniques) must be present in order for treatment to be effective. The PFM reflects evidence-based practice by integrating treatment delivery and clinical skill as a single quantifiable metric. PFM enables researchers and clinicians to objectively measure treatment outcomes within the PROMPT approach.