The use of facilitative vowel contexts in the treatment of post-alveolar fronting: a case study.

BACKGROUND

School-aged children with persisting speech sound disorders (SSDs) may show little improvement in speech accuracy following phonological or articulation therapy.

AIMS: To determine the effects of establishing consonant production in facilitative vowel contexts for a 7-year-old boy (CD) with persisting post-alveolar fronting. CD had received phonological awareness therapy and traditional articulation therapy as part of a community caseload. However, his post-alveolar fronting showed resistance to therapy.

METHODS & PROCEDURES: CD received individual therapy for nine 45-55-min sessions. A checklist of quality indicators for single-subject research was used to explore the likelihood that a community clinic could meet quality indicators. Fifteen test words in each of target, generalization and control sets were measured at five times pre-, during and post-therapy. A trend analysis was used to measure the statistical significance of the results and to demonstrate the efficacy of therapy.

OUTCOMES &

RESULTS

Therapy was successful. Gains on treatment and generalization test items were rapid and significantly higher than gains on control test items. Only three of 21 single-subject research quality indicators were not met in this research.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Targeting facilitative vowel contexts was successful for this 7-year-old boy with persisting post-alveolar fronting which had been resistant to other therapy techniques. Speech and language therapists are encouraged to ensure that quality indicators for single-subject interventions are built into regular practice.