About 70 % of children attending speech therapy have a speech sound disorder, which is the most common communication disorder. One of functional speech sound disorders is a phonological disorder. In Slovenia, children with such difficulties often do not receive a thorough differential diagnosis and determination of the subtype of speech sound disorders, which affects the appropriateness and effectiveness of treatment. Abroad, there is a wide range of phonological approaches, including the complexity approach, which are evidence-based practices. In the Slovenian context, only one case study of the cycles phonological approach has been conducted for research purposes in the treatment of a child with a phonological speech sound disorder.
Our single case study investigated the possibilities of implementing the complexity approach, whose primary goal is to bring out a broader change in the phonological system and thus improve the intelligibility of a child's speech, in the speech therapy of a Slovenian-speaking child with a phonological speech sound disorder. In the theoretical part, speech sound disorders are defined, and phonological disorder is presented in detail. In order to transfer the approach from English to Slovenian, a comparison of the existing two- and three-element consonant clusters, a sonority scale for Slovenian and English phonemes and the calculation of the sonority difference for two-element consonant clusters for both languages are given. This serves as the basis for the selection of target elements.
The empirical part presents a case study involving a preschool boy with a phonological speech sound disorder. Prior to the treatment sessions, a thorough speech therapy diagnosis was carried out, in particular an assessment of the phonological system. The treatment of the target elements was carried out in two phases – the imitation phase and the spontaneous phase. After completing the treatments corresponding to the complexity approach, the boy achieved generalization beyond the category to untreated two-element consonant clusters and single phonemes, resulting in improved speech intelligibility. The proven effectiveness of this approach in treating a Slovenian-speaking child with a phonological disorder could serve as a basis for further research and implementation of the approach in speech therapy for Slovenian-speaking children.
|
