As a speech-language pathologist, you're always looking for ways to enhance your practice and improve outcomes for the children you work with. Recent research titled Importance of the auditory perceptual target to the achievement of speech production accuracy provides valuable insights that can help you do just that. The study, which explores the DIVA model (Directions into Velocities of Articulators), underscores the importance of auditory perceptual targets in achieving speech production accuracy.
The DIVA model suggests that children with speech delays often have difficulties with speech perception, which leads to imprecise speech and inaccurate articulation. The model emphasizes that having a clear auditory target is essential for children to make the necessary articulatory adjustments to achieve accurate speech production.
Here are some practical steps you can take to implement these findings in your practice:
- Focus on Auditory Targets: Ensure that your therapy sessions include activities that help children develop a clear auditory target for the phonemes they are working on. This can be done through listening exercises and auditory discrimination tasks.
- Use Minimal Pairs: Incorporate minimal pair activities that help children distinguish between similar sounds. This not only improves their auditory discrimination but also helps them understand the subtle differences between phonemes.
- Feedback and Self-Monitoring: Encourage children to listen to their own speech and compare it to the target sounds. Provide immediate feedback and help them self-correct their articulatory patterns.
- Technology Integration: Utilize software tools like the Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System (SAILS) to provide children with immediate feedback on their speech production. This can be particularly effective in helping them fine-tune their auditory targets.
The study also highlights two case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of focusing on auditory perceptual targets. In one case, a child with speech delay was able to adapt his articulatory patterns to achieve accurate speech production after improving his auditory perception of the target phoneme. In another case, a French-speaking child showed significant improvements in her ability to produce a specific phoneme correctly after receiving targeted intervention to improve her auditory perceptual knowledge.
These findings suggest that focusing on auditory perceptual targets can lead to significant improvements in speech production accuracy. By incorporating these strategies into your practice, you can help children achieve better outcomes and improve their overall communication skills.
To read the original research paper, please follow this link: Importance of the auditory perceptual target to the achievement of speech production accuracy.
