<div><b>Purpose:</b> Previous studies have shown that children with SSD speaking a language other than English produce different types of speech errors, although there is a paucity of information investigating these differences in speech sound production (e.g., Core & Scarpelli, 2015; Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010b; Fabiano-Smith & Hoffman, 2018). This study investigates the types of speech errors produced by bilingual Spanish-English and monolingual English-speaking children matched on age, receptive vocabulary, and articulation accuracy in single words.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Methods: </b>Twelve bilingual English-Spanish speaking children, ages 4;0 to 6;11, were matched to twelve monolingual English-Speaking children. Participants completed standardized and non-standardized tests of speech and language, and performance between groups and assessment measures were compared. Consonant sound productions were categorized as correct, substitution errors, omission errors, or distortion errors.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Results: </b>Bilingual Spanish-English children were significantly more likely than monolingual English children to produce omission errors, while monolingual English children were more likely to produce distortion errors. Both groups produced similar proportions of substitution errors. Bilingual children produced similar proportions of each error type in both of their languages.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Conclusion: </b>SLPs should not rely on English normative data to diagnose SSDs in monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking children, as they demonstrate different errors patterns from monolingual English-speakers.</div>

The purpose of this study was to examine how a critical principle of motor learning, practice amount (high number of trials versus a low number of trials), affects speech motor learning in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). It also sought to contribute to the literature base regarding using an integral stimulation approach for these children. Currently, a limited evidence base exists for decision-making regarding practice amount in CAS treatment. Using a single-case experimental design with two participants, three target sets of utterances (High Amount, Low Amount, and Control) received different amounts of treatment. Outcomes were compared in terms of retention. Targets were scored regarding perceptual (prosodic and segmental) accuracy. Effect sizes were computed to quantify the extent of treatment effects. For both participants, results show some evidence suggesting a higher amount of practice is advantageous and leads to greater learning. A low amount of treatment did not show clear differences compared to not receiving any treatment. Caution should be taken when interpreting these findings due to its small sample size and modest effects. Results suggest that the integral stimulation approach may only be effective if provided with a significantly high amount of practice. Further research is needed to examine how the principles of motor learning and the integral stimulation approach should be sensibly and systematically applied to promote best outcomes for this population. / Communication Sciences

<p dir="ltr">The goal of the study was to investigate vowel accuracy in preschoolers with and without speech sound disorders (SSD) on nonword repetition tasks. Children ages 4 and 5 years completed a battery of speech and language measures, as well as two nonword repetition tasks, the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT) and the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT). A total of 41 children participated in the study divided among 3 groups: 14 children with typical speech and language skills (TD), 14 children with isolated speech sound disorders (SSD-only), and 13 children with SSD and comorbid Developmental Language Disorder (SSD+DLD). Ultimately, it appears that children with SSD+DLD make more vowel errors on the Nonword Repetition Task, and that vowel accuracy on nonword repetition tasks and phonological awareness may share underlying mechanisms.</p>

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This study investigated the effects of an explicit individualized phonemic awareness intervention administered by a speech-language pathologist to 4 prekindergarten children with phonological speech sound disorders. Research has demonstrated that children with moderate-severe expressive phonological disorders are at-risk for poor literacy development because they often concurrently exhibit weaknesses in the development of phonological awareness skills (Rvachew, Ohberg, Grawburg, & Heyding, 2003). The research design chosen for this study was a single subject multiple probe design across subjects. After stable baseline measures, the participants received explicit instruction in each of the three phases separately and sequentially. Dependent measures included same-day tests for Phase I (Phoneme Identity), Phase II (Phoneme Blending), and Phase III (Phoneme Segmentation), and generalization and maintenance tests for all three phases. All 4 participants made substantial progress in all three phases. These skills were maintained during weekly and biweekly maintenance measures. Generalization measures indicated that the participants demonstrated some increases in their mean total number of correct responses in Phase II and Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase I intervention, and more substantial increases in Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase II intervention. Increased generalization from Phases II to III could likely be explained due to the response similarities in those two skills (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Based upon the findings of this study, speech-language pathologists should evaluate phonological awareness in the children in their caseloads prior to kindergarten entry, and should allocate time during speech therapy to enhance phonological awareness and letter knowledge to support the development of both skills concurrently. Also, classroom teachers should collaborate with speech-language pathologists to identify at-risk students in their classrooms and successfully implement evidence-based phonemic awareness instruction. Future research should repeat this study including larger groups of children, children with combined speech and language delays, children of different ages, and ESOL students

Background Internationally, speech and language therapists (SLTs) are involving parents and providing home tasks in intervention for phonology-based speech sound disorder (SSD). To ensure that SLTs’ involvement of parents is guided by empirical research, a review of peer-reviewed published evidence is needed. Aims To provide SLTs and researchers with a comprehensive appraisal and analysis of peer-reviewed published intervention research reporting parent involvement and the provision of home tasks in intervention studies for children with phonology-based SSD. Methods & Procedures A systematic search and review was conducted. Academic databases were searched for peer-reviewed research papers published between 1979 and 2013 reporting on phonological intervention for SSD. Of the 176 papers that met the criteria, 61 were identified that reported on the involvement of parents and/or home tasks within the intervention. These papers were analysed using a quality appraisal tool. Details regarding the involvement of parents and home tasks were extracted and analysed to provide a summary of these practices within the evidence base. Main Contribution Parents have been involved in intervention research for phonology-based SSD. However, most of the peer-reviewed published papers reporting this research have provided limited details regarding what this involved. This paucity of information presents challenges for SLTs wishing to integrate external evidence into their clinical services and clinical decision-making. It also raises issues regarding treatment fidelity for researchers wishing to replicate published intervention research. Conclusions & Implications The range of tasks in which parents were involved, and the limited details reported in the literature, present challenges for SLTs wanting to involve parents in intervention. Further high-quality research reporting more detail regarding the involvement of parents and home tasks in intervention for SSD is needed.

The relationship between speech articulation therapy dose (frequency, intensity, duration) and treatment outcomes are poorly understood. Identifying optimal therapy doses for specific articulation disorders is essential to providing efficient clinical care. Recent research indicates that intensive speech therapy doses-known as boot camps-may promote rapid improvement and generalization for certain speech disorders. Therefore the present investigation examined the effects of a boot camp speech therapy approach to remediate interdental /s/ production in an 8-year-old male. The boot camp included two days of speech therapy involving visual, tactile, and auditory feedback approaches. Therapy was administered 5.5 hours per day across morning and afternoon sessions. Treatment outcomes were evaluated using auditory-perceptual ratings of pre- and post-treatment word pairs. The results indicated that /s/ production improved significantly immediately following the boot camp and improvements were sustained at one week post-treatment (p < 0.05). Medial and final /s/ productions improved more so than the initial /s/ productions. These findings suggest that the speech therapy boot camp approach may be effective for certain individuals with speech sound disorders. Future research should explore dose-response relationships among speech articulation therapy dose in other children with speech sound disorders.

Ce travail de doctorat a été réalisé dans le cadre d'une cotutelle entre l'Université Grenoble Alpes en France et l'Université de Montréal au Canada. / Ce travail de thèse étudie les Troubles du Développement des Sons de Parole (TDSP). Les TDSP correspondent à un délai de développement des sons de la langue conduisant à un déficit d’intelligibilité (degré pour lequel la parole d’une personne est comprise) et d’acceptabilité (degré pour lequel la parole d’une personne est perçue comme différente). Les TDSP sont les troubles de la communication les plus fréquents chez la population pédiatrique et peuvent avoir des conséquences majeures sur la scolarité des enfants et sur l’inclusion sociale. Malgré la haute prévalence et les possibles conséquences à long terme, il n’existe actuellement que peu d’outils d’évaluation en français permettant l’identification des enfants avec un TDSP et la caractérisation du trouble. La partie théorique de la thèse met en évidence le manque d’outils et de critères diagnostics. L’objectif de ce travail est de proposer une batterie de tests, fondée sur un modèle psycholinguistique, permettant l’évaluation et le diagnostic des enfants avec un TDSP. L’outil d’évaluation, nommé EULALIES, comprend cinq tâches, impliquant chacune de façon différente des niveaux du modèle psycholinguistique : (1) une tâche de jugement de lexicalité, (2) une tâche de dénomination, (3) une tâche de répétition de pseudomots, (4) une tâche de diadococinésies et (5) une tâche de répétition de syllabes. Les données ont été collectées auprès de 119 enfants typiques et 9 enfants avec un TDSP. Tous les enfants sont francophones. La première partie des résultats s’intéresse spécifiquement à la tâche de répétition de pseudomots et démontre la validité de cette tâche. Nos résultats mettent en lumière le fait que le score à la tâche de répétition de pseudomots dépend de l’âge des enfants, de leurs habiletés de mémoire phonologique à court terme, de la présence d’un vrai mot inclus dans le pseudomot, de la structure et de la longueur du pseudomot. Les données recueillies montrent que la tâche n’est pas sensible aux facteurs sociolinguistiques tels que le statut socio-économique ou le statut linguistique, ce que nous recherchons pour une application clinique. La seconde partie des résultats aborde le diagnostic différentiel entre deux types de TDSP : la dyspraxie verbale et le trouble phonologique. Les épreuves de la batterie mettent en évidence des indicateurs spécifiques à la dyspraxie verbale, tels que la lenteur aux diadococinésies ou les erreurs sur les voyelles. Par rapport à ce qui est décrit pour l’anglais, certains indicateurs semblent être moins pertinents pour les enfants francophones. C’est le cas des épenthèses de schwas. A l’issue de ces travaux, nous soutenons que l’évaluation des enfCants présentant un TDSP doit prendre appui, à la fois sur l’analyse des patrons d’erreurs produits par l’enfant mais aussi sur une perspective psycholinguistique. Celle-ci permet de mieux décrire le profil de parole de l’enfant et de proposer une intervention adaptée. / This thesis work investigates Speech Sound Disorders (SSD). SSD are defined as a delay in speech sound development affecting intelligibility (degree to which a person's speech is understood) and acceptability (degree to which a person's speech is perceived as different). SSD are the most common communication disorder in the pediatric population. Children with SSD are at high risk for later academic and social inclusion. Despite the high prevalence and possible long-term consequences, there are currently few assessment tools available to diagnose French-speaking children with SSD and characterize the disorder. The theoretical part of this work highlights the lack of diagnostic tools. This work intends to create a speech sound assessment tool, based on a psycholinguistic model to diagnose children with SSD. The assessment tool, named EULALIES, includes five tasks, each involving different levels of the psycholinguistic model: (1) a lexicality judgment task, (2) a picture-naming task, (3) a nonword repetition task, (4) a diadochokinetic task, and (5) a syllable repetition task. Data were collected from 119 typical children and 9 children with SSD. The first part of the results focuses specifically on the nonword repetition task and describes the validity of this task. Our results highlight the fact that nonword repetition performance depends on children's age, phonological short-term memory skills, inclusion of a real word in the nonword, syllable structure, and length of the pseudoword. Data collected show that the task is not sensitive to sociolinguistic factors such as socioeconomic status or linguistic status, which is what we were looking for from a clinical perspective. The second part of the results addresses the differential diagnosis between childhood apraxia of speech and phonological disorder, both of which being subtypes of SSD. The assessment tool reveals specific markers for childhood apraxia of speech, such low diadochokinetic rate or errors on vowels. Contrary to what is described for English, some markers seem to be less relevant for French-speaking children. This is the case for schwa epenthesis. At the end of this work, we argue that children with SSD assessment should be based on the analysis of error patterns produced by the child as well as on a psycholinguistic approach. This helps to better describe the child's speech profile and to offer an adapted intervention.

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