Stimulability as a factor in the phonological generalization of misarticulating preschool children.
The relationship among six functionally misarticulating preschool children's phoneme-specific stimulability skills, the choice of treatment targets (i.e., stimulable or nonstimulable sounds), and generalization of correct sound production was explored in this prospective study. Each subject [age range of 4:11 (years:months) to 5:6] was taught to produce [r] and one other sound that was absent from his or her phonetic inventory using a contrasting-minimal-pairs production approach. A multiple baseline across behaviors single-subject research design provided experimental control. For 86% of the 28 monitored sounds, generalization was consistent with pretreatment stimulability skills; production of stimulable sounds tended to improve regardless of treatment target. These results suggest that nonstimulable sounds are likely to require direct treatment; thus, generalization probe responses may be maximized by treating nonstimulable sounds rather than stimulable sounds.
Powell
T W
TW
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306-0555.
Elbert
M
M
Dinnsen
D A
DA
D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005795:Generalization, Stimulus; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*