Children with developmental language disorders (DLDs) may experience barriers to communicative participation. Communicative participation is defined as 'participation in life situations in which knowledge, information, ideas or feelings are exchanged'. Barriers experienced in communicative participation cannot be explained by language competence…

Multilingual children living in areas with low socioeconomic status (SES) are at an increased risk of having speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). Many multilingual children with SLCN in Sweden have insufficient basic vocabulary knowledge in the majority language, preventing them from achieving the school's learning goals. However,…

Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) represent a large number of speech and language therapists' caseloads. The intervention with children who have SSD can involve different therapy approaches, and these may be articulatory or phonologically based. Some international studies reveal a widespread application of articulatory based approaches in…

This study explored the feasibility of training school teaching assistants to provide the treatment, Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing to treat childhood apraxia of speech (CAS, also known as developmental verbal dyspraxia). The study used a single case experimental design across behaviours and a qualitative evaluation of teaching assistant…

Parental beliefs and experiences regarding involvement in speech intervention for their child with mild to moderate speech sound disorder (SSD) were explored using multiple, sequential interviews conducted during a course of treatment. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with seven parents of six children with SSD: (1) after their child's initial…

This Conversation Analysis study investigated how a speech and language therapist (SLT) created opportunities for communication aid use in multiparty conversation. An SLT interacted with a child with multiple disabilities and her grandparents in a home setting, using a bliss board. The analyses demonstrated a practice where the SLT employed…

This study describes the experience of childhood speech impairment (speech sound disorder) from the perspective of two young men and their mothers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the four participants, with questions framed around the "International classification of functioning, disability and health" (ICF; WHO, 2001) to gain a…

Compared to the treatment of consonant segments, the treatment of vowels is infrequently described in the literature on children's speech difficulties. Vowel difficulties occur less frequently than those with consonants but may have significant impact on intelligibility. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of vowel targeted intervention (VTI)…

The current study was designed to examine the relationships between performance on a nonverbal phoneme deletion task administered in a dynamic assessment format with performance on measures of phoneme deletion, word-level reading, and speech sound production that required verbal responses for school-age children with speech sound disorders (SSDs).…

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a screening questionnaire that focuses on parents' perceptions of children's speech in different contexts. Originally developed in English, it has been translated into 60 languages and the validity and clinical utility of the scale has been documented in a range of countries. In South Africa, there are…

The underlying nature and diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) still requires clarification. However, the label "CAS" or "suspected CAS" continues to be assigned to a group of children with speech problems, and speech and language therapists need to be aware of effective treatment for these children. The aim of this study was to assess…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an integrated phonological awareness approach for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Change in speech, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, word decoding, and spelling skills were examined. A controlled multiple single-subject design was employed. Twelve children aged 4-7 years with…

Children with unintelligible speech differ in severity, underlying deficit, type of surface error patterns and response to treatment. Detailed treatment case studies, evaluating specific intervention protocols for particular diagnostic groups, can identify best practice for children with speech disorder. Three treatment case studies evaluated the…

Parents of children with suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech (sCAS, n = 20), Specific Language Impairment (SLI, n = 20), and typically developing speech and language skills (TD, n = 20) participated in this study, which aimed to quantify and compare reports of early vocal development. Via a questionnaire, parents reported on their child's early…

Children with cerebral palsy often have speech, language and communication difficulties that affect their access to social and educational activities. Speech and language therapy to improve the intelligibility of the speech of children with cerebral palsy has long been advocated, but there is a dearth of research investigating therapy…