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…

Purpose: This study was designed to identify and describe between-word simplification patterns in the continuous speech of children with speech sound disorders. It was hypothesized that word combinations would reveal phonological changes that were unobserved with single words, possibly accounting for discrepancies between the intelligibility of…

Background: Interaction between caregivers and children with severe impairments is closely related to the demands of daily activities. This study examines the relationship between interaction and the routine mealtime activity at home. Method: Patterns of interaction between a child (aged 6 years and 6 months) with severe speech and physical…

Purpose: Speech disorder is one of the most common problems found with autistic children. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of computer-based interactive games along with the traditional therapies in order to help improve the speech of autistic children. Design/methodology/approach: From analysis of the works of Ivar…

B. Z. Pearson, S. L. Velleman, T. J. Bryant, and T. Charko (2009) demonstrated phonological differences in typically developing children learning African American English as their first dialect vs. General American English only. Extending this research to children with speech sound disorders (SSD) has key implications for intervention. A total of…

Background: Children who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under-referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children. Aims: To investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children's acquisition of speech in English to facilitate the identification and treatment of…

Purpose: This study explores the importance of production frequency during speech therapy to determine whether more practice of speech targets leads to increased performance within a treatment session, as well as to motor learning, in the form of generalization to untrained words. Method: Two children with childhood apraxia of speech were treated…

This paper describes a matrix for clinical use in the selection of phonological treatment targets to induce generalization, and in the identification of probe sounds to monitor during the course of intervention. The matrix appeals to a set of factors that have been shown to promote phonological generalization in the research literature, including…

Hearing and repeating novel phonetic sequences, or novel nonwords, is a task that taps many levels of processing, including auditory decoding, phonological processing, working memory, speech motor planning and execution. Investigations of nonword repetition abilities have been framed within models of psycholinguistic processing, while the motor…

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) rely on knowledge of tongue placement to assess and provide intervention. A total of 175 SLPs who worked with children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) drew coronal diagrams of tongue/palate contact for 24 English consonants. Comparisons were made between their responses and typical English-speaking adults'…

A companion paper describes three extensions to a classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). The SDCS uses perceptual and acoustic data reduction methods to obtain information on a speaker's speech, prosody, and voice. The present paper provides reliability estimates for…

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess whether any memory impairment co-occurring with language impairment is global, affecting both verbal and visual domains, or domain specific. Method: Visual and verbal memory, learning, and processing speed were assessed in children aged 6 years to 16 years 11 months (mean 9y 9m, SD 2y 6mo) with current,…

Medulla blastomas are known to be invasive and rapidly growing tumors. This case study follows a boy's journey for 3 years from when he was first diagnosed with medulla blastoma. The journey illustrates the complexities and challenges faced by individuals treated for brain tumors. A multifaceted view based on psychometric, cognitive-neuroscience,…

Aim: To investigate whether speech therapy using a speech systems approach to controlling breath support, phonation, and speech rate can increase the speech intelligibility of children with dysarthria and cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Sixteen children with dysarthria and CP participated in a modified time series design. Group characteristics were…

The development of a person's ability to understand other's thoughts and feelings, so-called "theory of mind" (ToM), is subject to study. Children with communicative disabilities have exhibited problems in this respect, highlighting the role of language in the development of ToM. In this study, ToM was studied in children with cerebral palsy and…