Teaching voiced velar stops to profoundly deaf children, using EPG—two case studies

Abstract

Older deaf children who have had amplification and auditory training from an early age to promote maximal use of residual hearing, can still frequently present with unintelligible speech. They not only require access to new speech-teaching techniques, but more importantly, carefully planned, realistic therapy goals. This pilot study explores the use of EPG in teaching two profoundly deaf 10-year-olds how to articulate initial voiced velar stops in familiar phrases. Whereas previous traditional therapy methods had proved unsuccessful, the results with EPG were positively significant, and some generalization when reading untaught targets was seen. The post-therapy utterances were also judged as more intelligible, when rated by untrained listeners. The study took place over a 2-month period. Hence no long-term effects of therapy could be measured. However, the issues of long-term generalization of speech skills by the deaf, and the effects upon intelligibility are discussed.

Efficacy of speech intervention using electropalatography with a cochlear implant user

“…(Crawford 1995;Parsloe 1998), however there are no similar studies for cochlear implant users. The purpose of this single case study is to explore the technique of EPG as a therapeutic intervention to treat voiceless velar stop consonant sound production in a deaf child cochlear implant user.…”

“…EPG has been used successfully to treat disorders ranging from dyspraxia (Hardcastle & Edwards 1992), dysarthria (Wood & Hardcastle 1999), cleft palate (Gibbon et al 2001;Whitehill, Stokes & Man, 1996), glossectomy (Fletcher 1988) and dysfluency (Wood 1993; to speech problems related to deafness (Fletcher & Hasegawa 1983;Dagenais & CritzCrosby 1991;Fletcher, Dagenais, & Critz-Crozby 1991a;Dagenais, Critz-Crozby, Fletcher & McCutcheon 1994;Crawford 1995;Parsloe 1998). However, no research to date has been based on children who have cochlear implants.…”

The efficacy of speech intervention using electropalatography with an 18-year-old deaf client: A single case study

“…There is evidence in the literature that EPG therapy can affect change in speech production skills more quickly than traditional therapy (Bernhardt et al, 2003;Dagenais et al, 1994;Fletcher et al, 1991;Parsloe, 1998). There is also some evidence that production skills can be maintained in the short-term (Crawford, 1995;Dagenais et al, 1994;Pantelemidou et al, 2003). However, few longitudinal studies have been carried out to investigate the impact of phoneme-specific changes on intelligibility in connected speech or the longterm maintenance of skills.…”

“…M requested further therapy and EPG therapy was offered as an alternative approach. Crawford (1995) showed that alveolar plosives could be taught to two profoundly deaf children using EPG, in the absence of the ability to perceive the target contrast.…”

“…Relatively few studies have investigated the use of EPG with adults with speech production difficulties (Bernhardt, Bacsfalvi, & Gick, 2005;Howard & Varley, 1995). In terms of its specific use, EPG has been successfully used to teach production patterns for a range of sounds, including fricatives (Bernhardt, Gick, Bacsfalvi, & Ashdown, 2003;Fletcher, Dagenais, & Critz-Crosby, 1991;Parsloe, 1998), affricates (Bernhardt et al, 2003;Hardcastle et al, 1995;Parsloe, 1998) and plosives (Crawford, 1995;Friel, 1998;Gibbon et al, 1993;Pantelemidou, Herman, & Thomas, 2003;Parsloe, 1998).…”