Electropalatographic therapy for children and young people with Down's syndrome

Abstract

Articulation disorders in Down's syndrome (DS) are prevalent and often intractable. Individuals with DS generally prefer visual to auditory methods of learning and may therefore find it beneficial to be given a visual model during speech intervention, such as that provided by electropalatography (EPG). In this study, participants with Down's syndrome, aged 10:1 to 18:9, received 24 individualized therapy sessions using EPG. Simultaneous acoustic and EPG recordings were made pre-and postintervention during 10 repetitions of a word list containing lingua-palatal consonants. Participants also completed the DEAP phonology sub-test at both time points. Post-treatment, all participants showed qualitative and quantifiable differences in EPG patterns and improvements in DEAP percentage consonants correct. EPG assessment and therapy appears a positive approach for identifying and improving articulatory patterns in children with DS.

Using ultrasound visual biofeedback to treat persistent primary speech sound disorders

“…Berhardt et al (2005) summarise that U-VBF and EPG begin with the clinician demonstrating the target articulation to the client. Since ultrasound is used for demonstrating and treating articulations which are hard to see, and crucially hard to describe, the use of the visual model avoids unnecessarily complex language and instructions that may be difficult for children to understand (Cleland, Timmins, Wood, Hardcastle, & Wishart, 2009). Anecdotally, parents of children with SSDs undergoing U-VBF often report that they did not fully understand the movements required for certain articulations prior to viewing ultrasound and one of the children in our study (07F) commented that a velar was ''impossible'' the first time she viewed an ultrasound movie of that segment, highlighting the lack of understanding she had as to the movements required to achieve a velar despite previous therapy targeting this very sound.…”

Use of electropalatography in the treatment of speech disorders in children with Down syndrome: a randomized controlled trial

“…In particular, this technique has been successful in resolving persistent speech errors involving lingual consonants, especially in individuals whose difficulties were considered to be motor based (Wood and Hardcastle , Gibbon and Wood , Cleland et al . , Wood et al . ).…”

Self-controlled feedback enhances learning in adults with Down syndrome

“…In the context of treatments for motor speech disorders, which are frequently seen in people with DS, the effects of augmented (visual or auditory) feedback have been examined. Improvements in the accuracy of speech production were found in children and teenagers with DS when visual feedback (based on electropalatography) was provided to participants 7,8 . In another study related to motor learning, the effects of different feedback frequencies (100% and 33%) were examined in adults with DS learning a simple aiming task 9 .…”