What is it about?
Mispronouncing /r/ is a problem for many children, but using ultrasound feedback--allowing the speakers to see their own tongues--is an effective treatment. Here, we found that the amount of feedback given makes a difference. As with other motor learning tests, giving a lot of feedback early and then giving less feedback later was more effective than having low and then high rates of feedback; both were effective, making this technique ever more promising.
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Why is it important?
Treatment of /r/ is one of the most frequent tasks for speech-language pathologists, and using ultrasound feedback can greatly improve outcomes.
Perspectives
Finding the right amount of feedback to give to remediate misarticulation is challenging, given that there are many differences among individuals in severity, amount of previous therapy, and motivation. This study tested high and low frequency feedback within speaker, rather than (as is typical) across speakers, allowing us to be more confident that having the high frequency feedback come first is more effective. It is encouraging to see so much progress, especially for children who have had years of therapy with limited progress. With the cost of ultrasound system coming down, this technique will, we hope, be widely available soon.
D. H. Whalen
City University of New York Graduate School and University Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Treatment for Residual Rhotic Errors With High- and Low-Frequency Ultrasound Visual Feedback: A Single-Case Experimental Design, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, August 2018, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2018_jslhr-s-17-0441.
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