Factors Related to the Effectiveness of Articulation Therapy for Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Children

Abstract

Articulation therapy was administered by 20 speech clinicians to 288 children in a suburban school system. Articulation testing was completed both before and after an eight-and-a-half month treatment period. Therapy was found effective for all groups regardless of grade level or severity. However, subjects with poor stimulability scores derived significantly more benefits from therapy than did those having good stimulability scores. Stimulability performances were related to articulation improvements in untreated groups at certain grade levels. Compared with subjects having milder degrees of defectiveness, subjects with more severe problems improved more in kindergarten than at the second grade level.