Ultrasound Biofeedback for Speech Sound Disorders

Yale University

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Speech Sound Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: Ultrasound visual feedback

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01905449

1303011662

Details and patient eligibility

About

Children with speech sound disorders will receive speech therapy using real-time images of the tongue from ultrasound. These images will be used to cue the child to change the tongue position when producing speech sounds.

Enrollment: 35 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 50 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants must be native English-speaking children with no known hearing or vision deficits. Participants must be within the specified age range and have been identified as having speech production difficulties by a local speech-language therapist.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants will be excluded if there is a history of oral structural impairment (e.g., cleft palate), hearing or vision impairment, history of neurological impairment or injury, developmental disabilities such as Down Syndrome or Autism, or intellectual disability.

During initial testing, participants must score below a standard score of 75 on the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 and also score below 20% accurate on a probe list of words assessing accuracy of the /r/ sound

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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35 participants in 2 patient groups

Ultrasound plus prosodic cues

Experimental group

Description:

One sound in error is treated with ultrasound visual feedback while also cueing prosodic variation (7 one-hour sessions). Another sound in error is treated with the ultrasound visual feedback with no prosodic variation (7 one-hour sessions). Prosodic variations are cues to coordinate production of the target sound with intonation patterns such as questions (rising intonations), commands (loud/emphatic), or statements (neutral)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Ultrasound visual feedback

Ultrasound vs Traditional treatment

Experimental group

Description:

One sound in errors is treated with ultrasound visual feedback for approximately half of each session and traditional treatment for half of the session (7 one-hour sessions). Another sound in error is treated with no ultrasound visual feedback, using traditional treatment for the entire session (7 one-hour sessions). These traditional cues include verbal instructions on how to move the tongue to achieve a particular speech sound.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Ultrasound visual feedback