EFFECTIVENESS OF SPEECH INTERVENTION FOR PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS - A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Thirty children of preschool age with severe phonological disorders we re randomly assigned to two treatment groups. Group 1 received treatme nt for 4 months followed by 4 months without treatment while group 2 u nderwent 4 months without treatment followed by 4 months of treatment. The outcome measures used were the Assessment of Phonological Process es - Revised (APP-R), the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA), the Percentage Consonants Correct (PCC), and Mean Length of Utterance (MLU). Group 1 showed significant difference on scores of phonologica l measures (APP-R, GFTA, and PCC) after the first 4 months of the stud y. At the 8-month assessment point the measures for conversational spe ech intelligibility continued to be significantly different, with grou p 1 scores higher than those of group 2. The expressive language measu re did not detect a difference between groups at any time; however gro up 1 scores were consistently higher than group 2 scores.