The influence of visual impairment (i.e., blindness or low vision) on the development of children's speech sound production has undergone some speculation for over half a century. Children learn to produce speech sounds by utilizing and integrating several cognitive-linguistic and sensory-perceptual processes, which may include processing visual…

According to population-based prevalence data, more than 40% of children diagnosed with a hearing impairment have a mild to moderate bilateral or unilateral hearing loss. Prior to newborn hearing screening, these degrees of loss were not identified until early school-age. While studies highlight the challenges of late-identified children with such…

Purpose: This study aimed to identify predictors of response to treatment for residual speech sound disorder (RSSD) affecting English rhotics. Progress was tracked during an initial phase of traditional motor-based treatment and a longer phase of treatment incorporating ultrasound biofeedback. Based on previous literature, we focused on baseline…

This study examined how intervention dose frequency affects phonological acquisition and generalization in preschool children with speech sound disorders (SSD). Using a multiple-baseline, single-participants experimental design, eight English-speaking children with SSD (4;0 to 5;6) were split into two dose frequency conditions (4…

Purpose: This study compared perception of consonants in medial position by preschoolers, with and without speech sound disorder (SSD), with similar vocabulary and language skills. In addition, we investigated the association between speech perception and production skills. Method: Participants were 36 monolingual English-speaking children with…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive flexibility for semantic and perceptual information in preschool children who stutter (CWS) and who do not stutter (CWNS). Method: Participants were 44 CWS and 44 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years;months). Cognitive flexibility was measured using semantic and perceptual…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the functional relation between initial sound awareness instruction and increased initial sound segmentation skill in children with hearing loss. Two preschool children with hearing loss participated in this multiple probe design single subject study. The children participated individually in…

This pilot study explores differences in oral narrative comprehension abilities between children with moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss using hearing aids and their peers with typical hearing matched for age and gender. All children were between 3.5 and 5 years of age. Participants were read a patterned, illustrated storybook. Modified…

This study examined the speech perception, speech, and language developmental progress of 25 children with hearing loss (mean Pure-Tone Average [PTA] 79.37 dB HL) in an auditory verbal therapy program. Children were tested initially and then 21 months later on a battery of assessments. The speech and language results over time were compared with…

This speech offers a guide to identifying and teaching high-risk children, those who exhibit a lag in development severe enough to be a handicap in learning. The high-risk children focused on are those whose developmental lag is frequently not recognized until they fail in school. The two major areas of neurodevelopmental learning disorders are in…