The Effects of Behavioral Speech Therapy on Speech Sound Production With Adults Who Have Cochlear Implants

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances M. Pomaville ◽  
Chris N. Kladopoulos

Purpose In this study, the authors examined the treatment efficacy of a behavioral speech therapy protocol for adult cochlear implant recipients. Method The authors used a multiple-baseline, across-behaviors and -participants design to examine the effectiveness of a therapy program based on behavioral principles and methods to improve the production of target speech sounds in 3 adults with cochlear implants. The authors included probe items in a baseline protocol to assess generalization of target speech sounds to untrained exemplars. Pretest and posttest scores from the Arizona Articulation Proficiency Scale, Third Revision (Arizona–3; Fudala, 2000) and measurement of speech errors during spontaneous speech were compared, providing additional measures of target behavior generalization. Results The results of this study provided preliminary evidence supporting the overall effectiveness and efficiency of a behavioral speech therapy program in increasing percent correct speech sound production in adult cochlear implant recipients. The generalization of newly trained speech skills to untrained words and to spontaneous speech was demonstrated. Conclusion These preliminary findings support the application of behavioral speech therapy techniques for training speech sound production in adults with cochlear implants. Implications for future research and the development of aural rehabilitation programs for adult cochlear implant recipients are discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-468
Author(s):  
Kelly Farquharson ◽  
Sherine R. Tambyraja ◽  
Laura M. Justice

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which child- and therapy-level factors contribute to gains in speech sound production accuracy for children with speech sound disorders in receipt of school-based services. Method Data were obtained from 126 kindergarten and first- and second-grade children currently in receipt of speech therapy services in their public school setting. Pretest and posttest measures of spontaneous speech production and language ability were collected at the beginning and end of one academic year. Using a spontaneous speech sample, percentage of consonants correct (PCC) was calculated for each child; a gain score was computed by subtracting the pretest PCC score from the posttest PCC score. The children's speech-language pathologist completed weekly therapy logs during business-as-usual therapy, indicating the frequency, duration, and group composition of services throughout the school year. Results Results supported that gain in PCC from pretest to posttest was predicted by several child- and therapy-level variables. Children's initial speech sound severity was negatively related to gains in PCC. Our results also supported that the total number of therapy sessions received in a year was positively predictive of PCC gain. Interestingly, the number of individual therapy sessions was negatively associated with PCC gain. Conclusion Several malleable therapy factors contribute to gains in speech sound accuracy for children with speech sound disorders. Speech-language pathologists should consider how these factors may be manipulated to best tailor treatment to the individual needs of the children on their caseloads.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 3714-3726
Author(s):  
Sherine R. Tambyraja ◽  
Kelly Farquharson ◽  
Laura Justice

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which school-age children with speech sound disorder (SSD) exhibit concomitant reading difficulties and examine the extent to which phonological processing and speech production abilities are associated with increased likelihood of reading risks. Method Data were obtained from 120 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade children who were in receipt of school-based speech therapy services. Children were categorized as being “at risk” for reading difficulties if standardized scores on a word decoding measure were 1 SD or more from the mean. The selected predictors of reading risk included children's rapid automatized naming ability, phonological awareness (PA), and accuracy of speech sound production. Results Descriptive results indicated that just over 25% of children receiving school-based speech therapy for an SSD exhibited concomitant deficits in word decoding and that those exhibiting risk at the beginning of the school year were likely to continue to be at risk at the end of the school year. Results from a hierarchical logistic regression suggested that, after accounting for children's age, general language abilities, and socioeconomic status, both PA and speech sound production abilities were significantly associated with the likelihood of being classified as at risk. Conclusions School-age children with SSD are at increased risk for reading difficulties that are likely to persist throughout an academic year. The severity of phonological deficits, reflected by PA and speech output, may be important indicators of subsequent reading problems.


1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 604-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Tye-Murray ◽  
Linda Spencer ◽  
Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia ◽  
George Woodworth

Twenty children who have worn a Cochlear Corporation cochlear implant for an average of 33.6 months participated in a device-on/off experiment. They spoke 14 monosyllabic words three times each after having not worn their cochlear implant speech processors for several hours. They then spoke the same speech sample again with their cochlear implants turned on. The utterances were phonetically transcribed by speech-language pathologists. On average, no difference between speaking conditions on indices of vowel height, vowel place, initial consonant place, initial consonant voicing, or final consonant voicing was found. Comparisons based on a narrow transcription of the speech samples revealed no difference between the two speaking conditions. Children who were more intelligible were no more likely to show a degradation in their speech production in the device-off condition than children who were less intelligible. In the device-on condition, children sometimes nasalized their vowels and inappropriately aspirated their consonants. Their tendency to nasalize vowels and aspirate initial consonants might reflect an attempt to increase proprioceptive feedback, which would provide them with a greater awareness of their speaking behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison N. Jones ◽  
Kelly D. Crisp ◽  
Maragatha Kuchibhatla ◽  
Leslie Mahler ◽  
Thomas Risoli ◽  
...  

Abstract Speech disorders occur commonly in individuals with Down syndrome (DS), although data regarding the auditory-perceptual speech features are limited. This descriptive study assessed 47 perceptual speech features during connected speech samples in 26 children with DS. The most severely affected speech features were: naturalness, imprecise consonants, hyponasality, speech rate, inappropriate silences, irregular vowels, prolonged intervals, overall loudness level, pitch level, aberrant oropharyngeal resonance, hoarse voice, reduced stress, and prolonged phonemes. These findings suggest that speech disorders in DS are due to distributed impairments involving voice, speech sound production, fluency, resonance, and prosody. These data contribute to the development of a profile of impairments in speakers with DS to guide future research and inform clinical assessment and treatment.


1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 488-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Tye-Murray ◽  
Karen Iler Kirk

This investigation assessed how the vowel and diphthong production of young users of cochlear implants varied over time and how performance on the Phonetic Level Evaluation (PLE, Ling, 1976) corresponded with vowel and diphthong production during spontaneous speech. Eight children with prelingual deafness were tested with the PLE on five occasions: before receiving a Cochlear Corporation Nucleus cochlear implant and at the following points after receiving a cochlear implant: 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 or 36 months. An audiovideo recording of spontaneous speech was obtained at each test session. Performance on the PLE was scored with the scoring system designed by Kirk and Hill-Brown (1985). Performance during spontaneous speaking was scored by referencing a transcription of the spoken message to a transcription of the signed message. The correlations between the PLE and the spontaneous speech measures were weak, suggesting that performance on the PLE has low predictive value for vowel and diphthong production during spontaneous speaking. The results from the spontaneous speech samples collected over time suggest that two changes occurred: (a) vowel and diphthong production became more diverse and (b) production became more accurate. It is suggested that increased access to formant information enables subjects to enlarge their system of phonological performance and refine their motoric ability to establish vowel and diphthong targets.


2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 1353-1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bruce Tomblin ◽  
Shu-Chen Peng ◽  
Linda J. Spencer ◽  
Nelson Lu

1986 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann B. Smit

Published investigations of normative ages of speech sound acquisition vary in the kind of speech sample on which they are based and in the methods used. Review of norms based on elicited single-word responses shows that the methods used can influence the resulting ages of acquisition for specific speech sounds. Review of the investigations which sample children's spontaneous speech indicates that these data have characteristics that make them difficult to use as norms. Desirable characteristics of normative investigations of speech sound acquisition are proposed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Worawan Wattanawongsawang

Childhood apraxia of speech is a neurological speech sound disorder in which the child has inadequate the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech production in the absence of neuromuscular deficits. Children with apraxia of speech require intensive and specialized training in order to enable them to communicate effectively. The principles of the speech therapy program include stimulating speaking and communicating in daily life as well as practicing to speak clearly. The purpose of this article is to discuss the principles of speech therapy based on motor learning, speech stimulation and daily life communication, exercises to promote oral motor planning for each speech sound, and inclusion of the family into the team working with the child.


Author(s):  
Sue Grogan-Johnson ◽  
Rodney M. Gabel ◽  
Jacquelyn Taylor ◽  
Lynne E. Rowan ◽  
Robin Alvares ◽  
...  

This article describes a school-based telehealth service delivery model and reports outcomes made by school-age students with speech sound disorders in a rural Ohio school district. Speech therapy using computer-based speech sound intervention materials was provided either by live interactive videoconferencing (telehealth), or conventional side-by-side intervention.  Progress was measured using pre- and post-intervention scores on the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (Goldman & Fristoe, 2002). Students in both service delivery models made significant improvements in speech sound production, with students in the telehealth condition demonstrating greater mastery of their Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals. Live interactive videoconferencing thus appears to be a viable method for delivering intervention for speech sound disorders to children in a rural, public school setting. Keywords:  Telehealth, telerehabilitation, videoconferencing, speech sound disorder, speech therapy, speech-language pathology; E-Helper


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