This case study is about an articulation assessment of a 4-year old child named Kira Smith. She has never received speech therapy. You are only focusing on the single word part of the testing. For you the recording stops at about 5 minutes 5 seconds. A full list of the words the child is trying to say is given on page 3 of this. The clinician then has the child pick out the same words from a group of words. Then there are picture description exercises. You only need to do the very first part of this. If you want to listen to the rest, you can. But your decisions will be based on the single words (which are way easier to understand!). Your paper will be written as an essay with a title page and clear headings that indicate the introduction, research, therapy ideas and summary. See OWL APA .
Paper Outline
Title Page
See
Introduction
Give an overview of the child’s information (basically the child’s age, gender, and if she has received speech therapy in the past). Tell the reader that the child is being administered an articulation test, the CAAP (Clinical Assessment of Articulation and Phonology) at the request of the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Smith because they are concerned that Kira may be delayed in acquiring some sounds.
Transcribe the consonants as you watch the clinician administer the test. See page 3 of this for a list of the words. Put the words and transcriptions into a table. Label it Table 1. Transcribed words. Discuss the data in your table. What sounds is she having problems with? Is it a consistent problem? Does she ever say the sound correctly? So you might have a sentence that says something like: “Of the 10 words containing the sound [s], Kira replaced the [s] with [t] 70% of the time and deleted it 30% of the time.”
Research
Select an area of the child’s speech you want to target and explain why you chose that target. Use the child’s age to guide your decision. Use this age of acquisition chart, http://www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.aspx (Links to an external site.) This has been recommended by ASHA. If you have another chart that you are used to using, feel free to use that instead.
Also google frequency of use for English consonants and find a source that will tell you how often sounds are used. More frequently used sounds will have a bigger impact on the child’s intelligibility.
Choose one sound or two related sounds to work on. So you could select [s] or [s] and [z] for example.
Research (this is where evidence-based practice starts- review EBP power points if you want a refresher)
How do we know this is an appropriate sound(s) to work on. When we work on something we say we “target” that sound or sounds. Why is it important to know this sound? Is the child delayed by age? Is the sound used frequently in English? Do children generally have trouble learning this sound? Does this sound have significance for the child—is it a sound in her name for example? Does this sound impact her grammar? (For example if a child cannot say an [s], she cannot express plurality or possession in English.)
You may not chose the same sound to work on that someone else in the class chooses. You may chose a sound based on age of acquisition and someone else may choose a sound based on frequency of use. A third person may choose a sound because it is in the child’s name! As long as you have good justification for your choice, that is what we are looking for. The only bad choices would be a sound that fits none of these criteria!
Therapy Ideas
Include 2-3 therapy ideas that will be age appropriate and fun for a child of this age. Think of the parents as being your audience. What things can they do to immerse the child in this sound. Remember that they are not therapists so they are not going to be engaging in “professional” sound elicitations. They are just going to be modeling, repeating and providing opportunities for the child to hear and say the sound. Give enough directions that it is clear what to do. So, don’t say “Read a book”. Instead tell them how to read the book; what to do during the reading; what the child can be doing; what to do after the reading and so on.
