Background: Oral comprehension difficulties are prevalent in preschool children with language difficulties and are frequently the target of speech and language therapy (SLT) intervention. To support the implementation of research to practice, there is a need to identify effective interventions for this population and to describe their components.…

Purpose: The present study aims to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a novel multi-tiered narrative intervention program--the multimodal narrative (MMN) program--in Catalan that was co-created to boost preschool children's narrative and pragmatic skills. Method: First, we describe here in detail the novel program, which…

Purpose: The speech of some children does not follow a typical normalization trajectory, and they develop speech sound disorders (SSD). This study investigated predictive correlates of speech sound normalization in children who were at risk of SSD. Method: A prospective population cohort study of 845 Cantonese-speaking preschoolers was conducted…

Purpose: Applying evidence-based grammar intervention can be challenging for speech and language therapists (SLTs). Language in Interaction Therapy (LIT) is a focused stimulation intervention for children with weak morphosyntactic skills, which was developed to support SLTs in incorporating results from effect studies in daily practice. The aims…

Purpose: Cleft palate is one of the most common birth defects in the United States. Most of these children receive speech therapy by preschool and school-based clinicians. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive tutorial for speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) regarding treatment techniques and principles for children…

Background: A total of 68% of pre-school children with cleft palate have speech problems requiring speech therapy. There is a lack of access to regular targeted therapy. Parent training leads to positive outcomes in early communication skills in cleft palate and non-cleft speech disorders. Connected health has been used to address inadequate…

Motor learning principles guide treatment of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Previous studies found children to benefit from higher-intensity conditions; however, they did not control for the total amount of therapy time. The aims of the article are to examine the effects of high versus low treatment frequency in intervention for CAS in…

Purpose: Understanding others' mental states including thoughts (cognitive theory of mind [ToM]) and feelings (affective ToM) is an important component of communication, particularly for individuals with communication challenges. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are critical members of the team that supports these individuals; however, little…

Background & aims: The study assessed the efficacy of a novel, child-friendly, socio-culturally sensitive, icon-based Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system called Jellow Communicator, in teaching requesting skills to young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a special school in Mumbai, India. Jellow is a…

Background: Recent evidence suggests that pre-school children with co-occurring phonological speech sound disorder (SSD) and expressive language difficulties are at a higher risk of ongoing communication and literacy needs in comparison with children with these difficulties in isolation. However, to date there has been no systematic or scoping…

Enhanced Conversational Recast (ECR) is an input-based grammatical intervention approach developed from research on statistical learning. Recent research reported evidence demonstrating the efficacy of ECR on the learning of grammatically obligatory morphemes in English-speaking preschool children with developmental language disorder (DLD). This…

This study examined how intervention dose frequency affects phonological acquisition and generalization in preschool children with speech sound disorders (SSD). Using a multiple-baseline, single-participants experimental design, eight English-speaking children with SSD (4;0 to 5;6) were split into two dose frequency conditions (4…

Early childhood practitioners, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs), frequently provide home practice to children and families. For children with speech sound disorder (SSD), who comprise a large proportion of SLPs' caseloads worldwide, completing home practice can increase the amount of intervention received and improve outcomes.…

Purpose: Disfluencies associated with stuttering generally occur in the initial position of words. This study reviews data from a school-age child with an atypical stuttering profile consisting predominantly of word-final disfluencies (WFDs). Our primary goals were to identify patterns in overt features of WFDs and to extend our understanding of…

Background: Several studies have suggested that practitioners hold speech and language therapy (SLT) practice as tacit and consequently it is difficult for the therapist to describe. The current study uses a range of knowledge elicitation (KE) approaches, a technique not used before in SLT, as a way of accessing this tacit knowledge. There is…