Stimulability Assessment as an Outcome Measure of Phonological Intervention in Kannada Speaking Children with Speech Sound Disorders

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of the study were 1) To adapt the revised Scaffolding Scale of Stimulability (SSS) for frequently erred phonemes in Kannada language 2) To document the use of adapted SSS in Kannada as an outcome measure for treatment of Kannada speaking children with Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) and 3) To compare between static and dynamic assessments across the course of treatment of Kannada speaking children with SSD at five time-points. Design: The study used a modified pre-test post-test design. The revised SSS was adapted for six target phonemes in the word-initial and word-medial positions in Kannada language. Participants included ten native Kannada speakers with SSD in the age range of 4-6 years. Each participant attended a maximum of 15 individual intervention sessions by a Speech Language Pathologist. Kannada Diagnostic Photo Articulation Test and adapted SSS was administered on each of the participant at the five time-points considered in the study. Results: The results indicated there was a significant effect of intervention on the scores obtained on the adapted SSS for each of the target phoneme across the five time-points. The scores decreased as the intervention sessions progressed indicating an improvement in the articulatory abilities of the participants with respect to the phonemes targeted. Comparison of scores as revealed by static and dynamic assessment measures revealed significant difference between the scores only at the time –points corresponding to completion of intervention and 3-months post intervention. However, the percentage score obtained was higher on adapted SSS compared to that of KDPAT at each of the five time-points. Conclusions: Overall, dynamic assessments were more effective in documenting the incremental changes occurring during the process of intervention.