Auditory Input Therapy

Along with using a phonetic or traditional-motor approach during intervention, it may also be appropriate to use auditory input therapy. According to Bowen (2011), this type of therapy can be used with very young children as long as their parents or caretakers are involved as well. It includes minimal meaningful contrast therapy and metalinguistic activities. For example, this therapy would contain interesting games and activities where the child is exposed to several repetitions of particular sound targets, spoken by the adult, and the child is not required to practice saying words or sounds. According to Lancaster, Keusch, Levin, Pring, & Martin (2010), evidence of success with this approach include examples of significantly positive
Though Matthew exhibited numerous errored patterned and sounds, only a few fit the criteria to be targeted in therapy. Rudolph and Wendt describe in their research that in order to have maximal success, target phonological patterns for intervention must be chosen based upon age appropriateness, stimulability, frequency of occurrence, and effect on intelligibility (Rudolph & Wendt 2014). The targets for Matthew’s plan of care include the processes final and initial consonant deletion and multiple phoneme collapses. Final and initial consonant deletion is a process that should be resolved by the age of 3 and is one of the processes that has the greatest effect on intelligibility (Stoel & Stone 2002). Because Matthew was also stimulable for most errored sounds, this process is an optimal choice for his plan of care. Multiple phoneme collapse is another process that should be targeted in Matthew’s plan of care. His assessment results indicated that stopping was the most prevalent process occurring 85% of the time in connected speech and that for most of these episodes of stopping he was using /d/ as a sound preference. Though addressing stopping as a target process is developmentally inappropriate (classified as a process that should be resolved between the ages of 3 and a half to 5), Matthew’s sound preference for /d/ suggests that the 85% occurrence of stopping could be
In traditional cycles therapy, each patterned phoneme should be targeted for 60 minutes (Bauman-Waengler 2015). Because Matthew is only 3 years of age, his therapy session will take place twice a week at 30 minute sessions, thus one target process can be addressed per week. It is best if the hierarchy of target processes are chosen based upon frequency, thus the multiple phoneme collapses will be addressed first and the initial and final consonant deletions addressed second (Hodson 2009). Hodson suggests that once a target pattern cycle is completed (typically 6-18 hours) the patterns are recycled, adding complexity with each ensuing cycle (Hodson 2009). After each cycle, a phonological assessment should be performed to assess client progress. This process is repeated until resolution of the patterns. In Matthew’s case, typically 3 or 4 cycles are required for clients with extremely disordered phonological systems to become intelligible (Hodson 2009). Remediation sessions for Matthew will proceed as follows: review, auditory bombardment, target word cards, production practice through experiential play, stimulability probes, and auditory bombardment again. Through all Hodson, Bauman-Waengler, and Wendt & Rudolph’s research, this remediation program proves to be the most successful for the cycles