Many speakers with repaired cleft palate have reduced intelligibility, but there are limitations with current procedures for assessing intelligibility. The aim of this study was to construct a single-word intelligibility test for speakers with cleft palate. The test used a multiple-choice identification format, and was based on phonetic contrasts…

Linguistic theory has made important contributions to the clinical assessment and treatment of children with functional phonological disorders. In this article, Optimality Theory (OT) is introduced as a new linguistic model of grammar. Basic assumptions of the model are described and extended to clinical assessment and treatment. The aim is (1) to…

Children who stammer are often negatively stereotyped by other children and by teachers. They can also be easily identified as targets for teasing and bullying by peers. This may adversely affect their interaction levels in school and lower their self-esteem. This article suggests an approach aimed at reducing the development of adverse attitudes…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 3-year project which analyzed the speech and related behaviors of 28 young children (mean age 52.5 months) who stuttered, their mothers, and similar non-stuttering children and mothers. A loosely structured conversation between each mother and child was recorded and analyzed. In…

One of a series of letters to parents of children with developmental apraxia of speech (DAS), this letter discusses the treatment of DAS including linguistic approaches, motor-programming approaches, a combination of linguistic and motor-programming approaches, and treatment approaches that include specific sensory and gestural cueing techniques.…

This article discusses identity as it relates to aphasia and the resulting impact on life participation. The relationships among social identity, language, and social interaction are considered from the sociocultural perspective. Core social identity concepts are identified and used to examine the broad classifications of aphasia intervention.…

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (World Health Organization, 2001) is proposed as a framework for integrative goal setting for children with speech impairment. The ICF incorporates both impairment and social factors to consider when selecting appropriate goals to bring about change in the lives of…

Telecommunications Relay Service provides full telephone accessibility to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or speech-disabled. Specially trained Communication Assistants (CAs) serve as intermediaries, relaying conversations between hearing persons and persons using a text telephone device (TTY). Relay Service is available 24 hours…

This article describes an approach to the treatment of young children whose speech problems are classified in the category of "persistent sound system disorder." The approach fosters development of stimulability skills through broadening of the phonetic inventory early in the treatment process. A case study illustrates treatment…

TALK (Talk Aid using pre-Loaded Knowledge) is a computer system linked to a speech synthesizer which enables nonspeaking people to engage in real-time social conversation. TALK provides categories of general comments that can be used whenever a suitable specific response is unavailable. Results are reported of a study evaluating effectiveness of…

A case study describes the use of a facilitating phonetic context to decrease the occurrence of an unusual form of gliding. The process of differentiating the phones /l/ and /j/ involved systematic changes differing from the expected route of development. Results support the value of a key word approach in treating recalcitrant phonological…

Describes behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist strategies for children who have difficulty achieving phonological carryover. The advantages of constructivist strategies are pointed out and a model of self-regulated learning is applied to constructivist carryover activities which help these children achieve metacognitive abilities similar to…

Improving the reading outcomes of children with concomitant emotional and behavior disorders (BD) and phonological processing deficits represents one of the greatest challenges facing educators today. For example, the results from a meta-analysis indicated that problem behavior (Z[sub r]=.46) was as important as phonological processing skills in…

This final report contains a detailed description of six software systems designed to assist individuals with blindness and/or speech disorders in using inexpensive, off-the-shelf computers rather than expensive custom-made devices. The developed software is not written in the native machine language of any particular brand of computer, but in the…

This article describes a treatment program for a child with a speech impairment, which focused on increasing the size of the phonetic inventory by "teaching" stimulability. Application of the treatment approach is demonstrated in a case study. (Author/DB)