Phonological awareness training and phonological therapy approaches for specific language impairment children with speech sound disorders: a comparative outcome study

Abstract

Purpose Children with specific language impairment (SLI) might present with speech sound disorder (SSD) and phonological awareness (PA) deficits which put them at risk of potential reading problems. This work aimed to organize an intervention program in Arabic for phonological training and to assess the effect of PA training versus the phonological therapy (PT) for children with SLI and SSD. Methods The study was carried out on 60 children with comorbid SLI and SSD, aged 5–7 years. Children were equally divided into two groups; each group received language therapy combined with (PT or PA training). Measures of language development, phonological output, and PA were taken before therapy and at 4 month post-therapy for all children. Results The two therapy groups made nearly the same amount of progress in the development of language and phonological production, with no significant differences regarding language age and percent of consonants correct (PCC). The PA training group progressed more on the PA skills than children who received PT over the same time. Conclusions PA training could facilitate the development of phonological skills by targeting the child’s awareness of phonemes and improving the production of sound patterns.