The evaluation of a model speech training program for deaf children.
Systematic speech training procedures were employed with a group of 20 hearing-impaired children ranging in age from 7 to 10 years. Using a primarily auditory-oral approach, the speech training program employed a hierarchical sequence in order to teach the suprasegmental patterns of English to the children. The children's performance on the speech training hierarchy was monitored on a daily basis using a checklist system. Based on their rate of progress in the development of speech skills, the children were divided into three groups post hoc: rapid, slow but steady, inordinately slow. Although the system worked well, on the average, approximately one-third of the children encountered serious difficulites at one or more levels of the hierarchy. Examination of the children's background information and audiological data revealed that those children who encountered difficulty had an extremely limited amount of residual hearing and/or problems other than a hearing handicap.
D002648:Child; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004519:Education, Special; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D010700:Phonetics; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*