Full Answer
How can the complexity approach help preschool children with phonological disorders?
The goal of this clinical tutorial is to provide coaching on the implementation of the complexity approach in clinical practice, focusing on treatment target selection. Method: Evidence related to selecting targets for treatment based on characteristics of the targets (i.e., developmental norms, implicational universals) and characteristics of children's knowledge of the targets (i.e., …
What is the appropriate index of phonological knowledge for clinical practice?
implementation of the complexity approach in clinical practice, focusing on treatment target selection. Method: Evidence related to selecting targets for treatment based on characteristics of the targets (i.e., developmental norms,implicational universals)and characteristics ofchildren ’s knowledge of the targets (i.e., accuracy, stimulability) is
Are SLPs familiar with the complexity approach to phonology?
Jul 05, 2018 · Clinicians can integrate multiple pieces of information to select complex targets and successfully apply the complexity approach to their own clinical practice. Conclusion Incorporating the complexity approach into clinical practice will expand the range of evidence-based treatment options that clinicians can use when treating preschool children with …
How does knowledge influence treatment for phonological disorders?
Clinicians can integrate multiple pieces of information to select complex targets and successfully apply the complexity approach to their own clinical practice. CONCLUSION. Incorporating the complexity approach into clinical practice will expand the range of evidence-based treatment options that clinicians can use when treating preschool children with phonological disorders.
How do you select targets for complexity?
Within a complexity approach, targets are selected for treatment based on characteristics of the targets (e.g., developmental norms, implicational universals) and characteristics of children's knowledge of the targets (e.g., accuracy, stimulability).Jul 5, 2018
What does the complexity approach target?
The goal of the Complexity Approach is to produce “system wide change” to children's speech to make them easier to understand and to close the gap with typically developing children as quickly as possible.Jul 16, 2018
What phonological process should be targeted first?
The first step in an articulation or phonological intervention is deciding what phoneme or error pattern to work on. Choosing speech targets can be straightforward when a child presents with mild speech delay characterised by few speech errors that have slight impacts on his speech intelligibility.
What is the complexity approach?
In complement, the complexity approach argues that teaching less complex aspects of language leads to change in only less complex aspects of language. “Complexity” can be defined in a variety of ways, such as age-of-acquisition, linguistic complexity, person's knowledge, and many more.Aug 3, 2017
How is cluster reduction treated?
Treatments for Cluster Reduction Treatments may include: Modeling and demonstrations of the correct speech sounds. Assisting your child to produce the correct speech sounds. Gaining oral motor strength and coordination to sequence target phonemes.
How do you target S?
To produce a clear /s/ sound the tongue is raised high in the mouth to almost touch the alveolar ridge, the roof of the mouth. This action by the tongue should create a groove in the center of the tongue through which the air stream flows.
How do you target phonological processes?
8 Traditional Target Selection CriteriaWork in developmental sequence. ... Prioritise targets that are 'important' ... Choose targets that are stimulable. ... Use words that can be minimally contrasted. ... Choose unfamiliar words as therapy stimuli. ... Target sounds the child sometimes says correctly.More items...•Nov 12, 2011
How do you choose targets for cycles approach?
While determining the therapy goals, the focus should be on the child's main patterns of speech sound problems. Here, the focus should not be on individual sounds. In the speech therapy, the targets should be consistent error patterns that happen at least 40% of the time.May 24, 2021
What is phonological approach?
Phonological or linguistic approaches focus on the function of sounds to differentiate meanings, error patterns, and phonological rules that may be underlying the errors. Among the phonological or linguistic intervention approaches are a group referred to as contrast approaches.Oct 24, 2019
What is system complexity in phonetics?
system complexity. two-way scoring, five-way scoring, and phonetic transcription. two-way scoring (system complexity) binary decision about speech behavior (e.g. evaluation as correct/incorrect speech; right/wrong); was the sound produced correctly or incorrectly? five-way scoring (system complexity)
What is the traditional approach to articulation therapy?
In this approach, the parents or caregivers work together with the child on one sound that is selected by the speech-language pathologist. In traditional articulation therapy, one sound is worked on at a time. For instance, you may work on the sound /s/ in the initial position.Jun 14, 2021
What is the Stimulability approach?
Traditionally, 'stimulable' has meant that a consonant or vowel can be produced in isolation by a child, in direct imitation of an auditory and visual model with or without instructions, cues, imagery, feedback and encouragement.Nov 23, 2011
What is stimulability in phonology?
Stimulability is a type of dynamic assessment for phonology. Usually, targets that are produced with low accuracy in a static assessment are examined further (see Powell & Miccio, 1996, for a review). Although there are a variety of approaches to stimulabiltiy testing ( Powell & Miccio, 1996 ), in general, the child is given an accurate model to imitate and sounds are targeted in a variety of potentially facilitative contexts. That is, usually, the child is asked to imitate the target in isolation, in multiple word positions (initial, medial, and final), and with various vowels that may help facilitate correct production. For example, a common approach to stimulability testing for /r/ would require the child to produce the following stimuli in imitation: r,ri,iri,ir,ra,ara,ar,ru,uru, and ur ( Miccio, 2002 ). A target is categorized as stimulable if the child accurately imitates the target three or more times ( Miccio, 2002 ), with some variability across studies in the exact number of correct imitation attempts required ( Miccio, Elbert, & Forrest, 1999; Powell, Elbert, & Dinnsen, 1991 ). If the child only accurately imitates the target fewer times than required (e.g., zero to two), then the target is categorized as nonstimulable. Powell and colleagues (1991) taught six children (age = 4;11–5;6) with phonological disorders /r/ and one other target. The stimulability of all targets of the phonetic inventory was classified (i.e., one or more correct productions on a stimulability task = stimulable, 0 correct productions = nonstimulable). Powell and colleagues observed that, if a child was taught a stimulable target, he or she tended to learn that target and its cognate. In contrast, if a child was taught a nonstimulable target, he or she tended to learn that target and other stimulable sounds. In general, Powell and colleagues concluded that stimulable targets are more likely to be learned on their own without treatment or regardless of the treatment target, whereas nonstimulable targets are unlikely to become accurately produced in the absence of treatment, a conclusion echoed by Miccio and colleagues (1999). Thus, treatment of nonstimulable targets is prioritized within the complexity approach.
What are the barriers to complexity?
Even with an understanding of the tenets of the complexity approach, there are at least two likely barriers to implementation. A first potential barrier is that production accuracy and stimulability need to be obtained for each child, and this may or may not be a part of each clinician's standard assessment battery. A second likely barrier is the need to apply and integrate the four pieces of information corresponding to the tenets of the complexity approach: age-of-acquisition, implicational universals, production accuracy, and stimulability. This is a lot of information to keep track of for a potentially large number of targets, especially when singletons and clusters are both considered viable options for treatment. These tasks must be accomplished by a clinician in the context of a potentially large existing workload, where minimal protected time is available for comprehensive assessment and intervention planning.
What is singleton in phonology?
A singleton is a sound that occupies a syllable position in isolation (e. g., “bake” contain s two singleton consonants: /b/ in the syllable onset and /k/ in the syllable coda). Implicational universals describe patterns that are observed across the world's languages and across individual speakers learning a language. In the case of phonology, implicational universals describe patterns of co-occurrences of sounds ( Gierut, 2007 ). For example, one observation is that “if a language has fricatives, then it will also have stops.” This is based on the observed patterns that languages can have (a) neither stops nor fricatives, (b) stops only, or (c) stops and fricatives. However, a language with only fricatives and no stops has not been observed. In this case, the sound class that can occur alone (e.g., stops) is referred to as unmarked, whereas the sound class that cannot occur alone (e.g., fricatives) is referred to as marked. The unmarked sound is assumed to be less complex (both phonologically and motorically), and the marked sound is assumed to be more complex (both phonologically and motorically). Table 1 shows the marked and unmarked classes for singletons (and clusters).
What is a consonant cluster?
Consonant Clusters. There also are relevant implicational universals for consonant clusters: one or more sounds that occupy a syllable position in tandem (e.g., “brake” contains one cluster /br/ in the syllable onset). First, clusters are more marked than singletons.
What is a broad articulation test?
Most clinicians probably use a broad test of articulation as part of their assessment battery for children with phonological disorders. A broad test samples a wide range of targets in the native language but typically in a small number of words or contexts.
What are the three cases in ScholarWorks?
Three cases are provided in the ScholarWorks supplement. Each case includes an Excel file, which is the completed 1. All_ScoreWorkSheets, and a video showing how the 1. All_ScoreWorkSheets was completed. The cases are based on three children who were seen as part of a research study. Child 1 has a complete phonological battery that includes the singleton and cluster probes as well as stimulability for both singletons and clusters. Child 2 includes the singleton and cluster probes but not stimulability testing because the child did not qualify for the research study. Consequently, the full battery was not administered. Child 3 was seen before the development of these materials but was administered a comprehensive singleton probe as well as stimulability for singletons. Thus, his partial data focusing on singletons could be used to illustrate selection of singleton treatment targets. Children 2 and 3 demonstrate that clinicians can choose which components of the provided materials they use. That is, it is not required that all provided materials be administered to every child. Table 3 may be useful in weighing the cost (in time) of using each item.
Purpose
There are a number of evidence-based treatments for preschool children with phonological disorders (Baker & McLeod, 2011). However, a recent survey by Brumbaugh and Smit (2013) suggests that speech-language pathologists are not equally familiar with all evidence-based treatment alternatives, particularly the complexity approach.
Method
Evidence related to selecting targets for treatment based on characteristics of the targets (i.e., developmental norms, implicational universals) and characteristics of children's knowledge of the targets (i.e., accuracy, stimulability) is reviewed.
Results
Clinicians can integrate multiple pieces of information to select complex targets and successfully apply the complexity approach to their own clinical practice.
Conclusion
Incorporating the complexity approach into clinical practice will expand the range of evidence-based treatment options that clinicians can use when treating preschool children with phonological disorders.