Treatment Targets for Co-Occurring Speech-Language Impairment: A Case Study.
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ABSTRACT: Purpose:The intersection of speech and language impairments is severely understudied. Despite repeatedly documented overlap and co-occurrence, treatment research for children with combined phonological and morphosyntactic deficits is limited. Especially little is known about optimal treatment targets for combined phonological-morphosyntactic intervention. We offer a clinically focused discussion of the existing literature pertaining to interventions for children with combined deficits and present a case study exploring the utility of a complex treatment target in word-final position for co-occurring speech and language impairment. Method:Within a school setting, a kindergarten child (age 5;2) with co-occurring phonological disorder and developmental language disorder received treatment targeting a complex consonant cluster in word-final position inflected with third-person singular morphology. Results:For this child, training a complex consonant cluster in word-final position resulted in generalized learning to untreated consonants and clusters across word positions. However, morphological generalization was not demonstrated consistently across measures. Conclusion:These preliminary findings suggest that training complex phonology in word-final position can result in generalized learning to untreated phonological targets. However, limited improvement in morphology and word-final phonology highlights the need for careful monitoring of cross-domain treatment outcomes and additional research to identify the characteristics of treatment approaches, techniques, and targets that induce cross-domain generalization learning in children with co-occurring speech-language impairment.
SUBMITTER: Combiths PN
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6581461 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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