Examination of frequency of therapy and effect on clinical outcomes.

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare speech therapy outcomes in children ages 18 months to 16 years who participate in weekly speech therapy with home programming versus every-other week speech therapy with home programming in outpatient speech therapy. The main question it aims to answer is: Does a change in how often speech therapy sessions are delivered show an increased benefit in language and articulation standardized test scores? Participants will be randomly assigned to either (1) weekly or (2) every-other-week speech therapy for a total of 8 sessions. Researchers will compare these two groups to see if there are differences in speech outcomes.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Medical order for speech therapy
• Patients eligible for speech therapy at Connecticut Children's (qualify for receptive, expressive language and/or articulation therapy)
• Diagnosis of communication disorder.ICD-10 codes will be utilized pertaining to expressive, receptive language and articulation disorders (ICD-10 code specific to patient: F80.0, F80.1, F80.2, F80.4, F80.9, R47.89, R41.841)
• Patient recommended for individual (i.e. not group) treatment
• 18 months to 16 years of age
• Completed 1 plan of care (POC) with a duration of 8 sessions
• Attended at least 80% of scheduled visits during their plan of care period (still completing 8 sessions of therapy, may have extended time to completion).
• Services for a full 8-session plan of care.

Exclusion Criteria:

• - Seeking speech therapy care for treatment of disorders related to diagnosis of voice, feeding, fluency, and/or cognition
• Patient unable to complete standardized tests (EOWPVT-4, ROWPVT-4, GFTA-3, REEL-4)
• Patients in group speech therapy
• Patients younger than 18 months or older than 16 years of age
• Not willing to complete a full POC (8 sessions)
• Unable/unwilling to attend 80% of scheduled visits