The study investigated differences in causal attributions made by 134 student clinicians taking actor and observer roles in good and poor speech therapy sessions. Clinicians taking the actor role cited client causes more frequently than other causes while clinicians taking the observer role cited clinician causes. (Author/DB)

The speech of four phonologically disordered children (ages four and five) with place and voice errors affecting initial stop consonants was described through phonological and acoustic analyses. The presence of productive phonological knowledge, as inferred from acoustic data, facilitated rapid generalization of correct production of the treated…

This response to commentaries on EC 604 058 attempts to update and clarify views on the application of principles of assessment and intervention in phonological disorders in children. The lack of empirical demonstration that this approach is more effective and efficient than existing procedures is noted. (Author/DB)

Six patients with cleft palate were provided treatment using either visual feedback for tongue placement and frication or no visual feedback. Results indicated the feedback was especially useful in the treatment of defective /s/ sounds in the patients who exhibited abnormal posterior tongue posturing during dental or alveolar sounds. (Author/DB)

This response to Fey (EC 604 058) presents arguments and examples in support of using concepts of phonological processes and constructs in assessing and treating phonological disorders in children. The paper disagrees with Fey's contention that using the term "process" for "rule" leads to confusion. (Author/DB)

The study calculated indices of interjudge reliability and interjudge and intrajudge agreement on ratings made by 15 experienced speech clinicians on 5 deviant speech dimensions of 15 speakers with ataxic dysarthria and a wide range of speech intelligibility. Judges were reliable in tracking imprecise consonants, excess and equal stress, and harsh…

The influence of visual signals (echo and reverberation) on speech fluency in 60 stutterers and nonstutterers was examined. Visual signals were found to exert a corrective influence on the speech of stutterers but less than the influence of acoustic stimuli. Use of visual signals in combination with acoustic and tactile signals is recommended. (DB)

This response to Fey (EC 604 058) discusses the use of the term "phonological" to describe disordered speech patterns and suggests that phonological disorders include both phonetic and phonemic error types. Describing errors as either phonetic or phonemic is seen to lead to differential treatment procedures. (Author/DB)

This article challenges two assumptions underlying whole-language philosophy: spoken language is directly comparable to written language, and skilled readers rely on contextual information more than on the printed word. Speech-language professionals are urged to engage in some instructional practices associated with whole language but also…

This paper analyzes particular discourse markers (okay, oh, so, well, and now) to offer insights into how speech therapy lesson participants organized their interactions. Three regulatory role dimensions emerged, including information, evaluation, and control. It is concluded that comparisons and contrasts can be made between adult-controlled and…

This study evaluated whether variations in the structure of minimal versus maximal opposition treatments would result in empirical differences in phonological learning with three four-year-old boys who excluded at least six sounds from their phonetic and phonemic inventories. Results indicated that treatment of maximal oppositions led to greater…

Twelve preschool children with phonological process errors were provided speech therapy either by a clinician or by both a clinician and a parent with the SpeechViewer system. Both groups improved significantly and did not differ significantly from each other in degree of change. (DB)

Ethnographic techniques were applied to a post hoc examination of children's incidental behaviors during a metalinguistic intervention procedure--behaviors ignored in the original experimental design. The reflective and qualitative nature of ethnography was used to account for the 12 phonologically impaired 4-year-olds' varied perceptions of…

The use of a traditional syndrome-classification system for aphasics is examined critically from the different perspectives of medicine and psychometrics. Medicine views syndromes as dichotomous (present or not present) and necessarily indicative of an underlying pathognomic state or process, and psychometrics sees performances as varying along a…

In speech therapy lessons, discourse between the clinician and the child is impacted by the social presuppositions of both participants. This paper argues that some macroanalysis of the clinician's social experiences must be incorporated into the microanalysis of therapy to sort out the multiple meanings of therapy events. (Author/JDD)