Visual Acoustic Biofeedback for RSE Via Telepractice

Online Assessment and Enhancement of Auditory Perception for Speech Sound Errors: Visual Acoustic Biofeedback for RSE Via Telepractice

This research will meet a public health need by evaluating the efficacy of speech intervention supplemented with real-time visual-acoustic biofeedback when delivered using remote technologies.

In a crossover design, participants will be randomly assigned to receive 10 weeks/20 sessions of visual-acoustic biofeedback treatment via telepractice followed by a 10-week period of no treatment, or the same two conditions in the reverse order. Production accuracy will be assessed with standard probes (20 syllables, 30 words, and 10 sentences containing /r/ in various phonetic contexts) administered prior to the beginning of treatment (baseline), after the first 10-week phase, and again at the end of the study.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Must be between 9;0 and 15;11 years of age at the time of enrollment.
• Must speak English as the dominant language (i.e., must have begun learning English by age 2, per parent report).
• Must speak a rhotic dialect of English.
• Must pass a pure-tone hearing screening at 20dB hearing level.
• Must pass a brief examination of oral structure and function.
• Must exhibit less than 30% accuracy, based on consensus across 2 trained listeners, on a probe list eliciting rhotics in various phonetic contexts at the word level.
• Must exhibit no more than 3 sounds other than /r/ in error on the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-3 (GFTA-3).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Must not receive a T score more than 1.3 SD below the mean on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence-2 (WASI-2) Matrix Reasoning
• Must not receive a scaled score of 7 or higher on the Recalling Sentences and Formulated Sentences subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-5 (CELF-5).
• Must not have an existing diagnosis of developmental disability or major neurobehavioral syndrome such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, or Autism Spectrum Disorder