A comparison of three therapy methods for children with different types ofdevelopmental phonological disorder

Treatment case studies of three children whose speech was characterized by non-developmental errors are described. Three therapy methods were trialed with each child: phonological contrast; core vocabulary and PROMPT. The acc uracy and intelligibility of the children's connected speech improved throu ghout: the course of the programme. Intervention that focused on teaching a rule about the contrastive use of phonemes was most successful for a child who consistently made non-developmental errors. Children making inconsiste nt errors received most benefit from the core vocabulary approach that mark edly enhanced consistency of production. However, once consistency was esta blished, one child benefited from phonological contrast therapy. While the results of the study should be interpreted with caution due to the small sa mple size and the cumulative effects of intervention, the findings suggest that different parts of a child's phonological and phonetic system may resp ond to various types of treatment approaches that target different aspects of speech production. The implication drawn is that just as no single treat ment approach is appropriate for all children with disordered phonology, ma nagement of some children may involve selecting and sequencing a range of d ifferent approaches.