Objective: speech sound disorders are among the most common speech disorders in children. Non-speech oral motor exercises have long been used as a facilitative activity throughout therapy sessions for a wide variety of speech disorders by speech-language pathologists. But there are few empirical controlled data to evaluate its effectiveness. This study aimed at comparing the effects of therapeutic intervention based on production training with non-speech oral motor exercises on improving speech of children with phonological disorders.
Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental interventional study with single subject design and multiple baselines recruited six 4-6 Farsi- speaking children with phonological disorders but normal oral motor status. Three therapeutic plans on two sounds with different distinctive features were conducted: production training, non-speech oral motor exercises and combined method. The results were analyzed using level, trend &slope analysis with excel software.
Results: Children who had received non-speech oral motor therapy, did not show any change in their speech pattern but children who received production therapy showed 91% improvement and those who received combined method showed 86% improvement in the target sounds.
Conclusion: Findings of this investigation do not support the use of non-speech oral motor exercises in order to improve the speech of children with phonological disorders. This study seems to reveal production training as an effective method to improve speech production of children with phonological disorders.
Type of Study:
Original |
Subject:
Speech & Language Pathology Received: 19/11/2012 | Accepted: 22/06/2014 | Published: 7/10/2014