The Relationship Between Stimulability and Phonological Acquisition in Children With Normally Developing and Disordered Phonologies

Abstract

The relationship between stimulability and phonological acquisition was investigated in eight children, four with phonological disorders who were aged 3;10 (years;months) to 5;7 and four with normally developing phonologies who were aged 3;6 to 4;1. Children with disordered phonologies received treatment on one nonstimulable fricative. A multiple baseline, across subjects, single-subject design was used for experimental control of the treatment aspect of this study. Children with normally developing phonologies were examined at the beginning of the study and upon termination of treatment for the children with disorders. These data were obtained to determine the relationship of stimulability to normal acquisition. In both cases stimulable sounds underwent the most change and stimulability was related to the learning patterns observed. This study supports the hypothesis that nonstimulable sounds are least likely to change without treatment. The results also suggest that stimulability for production of a sound may signal that it is being acquired naturally.

Whole word measures in bilingual children with speech sound disorders

“…First, the findings of the current study support the use of multiple analyses to measure the phonological abilities of children (Miccio, Elbert, & Forrest, 1999). Second, it centred on the phonological skills of bilingual children, a main focus of Miccio's research in the past 5 years.…”

A comparison between computer and tabletop delivery of phonology therapy

“…Powell, Elbert and Dinnsen (1991) found that nonstimulable sounds were least likely to change without direct treatment while Miccio, Elbert and Forrest (1999) observed that sounds that were stimulable underwent the most change in the absence of treatment. When stimulable sounds are exposed to phonological intervention, the rate of progress is increased (Rvachew & Nowak, 2001).…”

Triangulating speech sound generalization

“…The prognostic value of stimulability-defined here as the ability to imitate speech sounds in isolation and in syllables-has been studied for many years (Powell and Miccio, 1996). Stimulability has been found to be predictive of generalization in several studies (Powell, Elbert, and Dinnsen, 1991;Miccio et al, 1999a;Rvachew, Rafaat, and Martin, 1999).…”

“…In the literature, this transfer of learning has been referred to as generalization and it has been studied experimentally for many years (e.g. Elbert, Shelton, and Arndt, 1967;McReynolds and Bennett, 1972;Gierut, Elbert, and Dinnsen, 1987;Miccio, Elbert, and Forrest, 1999a).…”