The Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences department at SDSU and the Project in Cognitive and Neural Development at UCSD is conducting a research program that is designed to help English-speaking children learn to pronounce sounds. In the program, we wish to serve 10 children between the ages of 3 and 6 who produce sounds incorrectly or never even use some sounds at all. The goal of the program is to learn more about how children learn sounds, to identify what makes sound learning easier, and to develop better ways for teaching sounds to children. All children who participate in this program will receive free speech, language, and hearing screenings and treatment.

One-on-one sessions with each child will be approximately 45-60 minutes in length and will meet two times a week at the SDSU Communications Clinic on Alvarado Road. The treatment program may continue for approximately 3 to 6 months, depending on each child’s individual needs.

Additionally, we are also looking at factors that may be related to your child’s speech disorder and may change due to the speech and language treatment. Your child will also complete two additional parts of this study, which will be administered both before treatment begins and after it has concluded.

One part of the study will involve your child sitting in front of a computer with a touch-screen. Your child will then look at pictures and hear spoken word labels. Your child will be asked to touch the picture that is best labeled by the words. There are two different variations of this experiment that your child will complete during the session. This portion of the study should take approximately 30 minutes.

The second part of the study will involve us recording your child’s brain waves. We will place an appropriately fitting cap, with small metal disks (electrodes) sewn into it, on your child’s scalp. In order to record the best brain activity, we will need to cleanse the scalp beneath each electrode using special electrode cleanser. A small amount of electro-gel will be applied at each small metal disk position. During the experiment your child will be listening to speech sounds while watching a silent movie. Your child will not be required to attend to or respond to the sounds. If your child becomes bored or tired, we will take breaks and provide snacks. This portion of the study should take approximately 2 hours.

It is possible that the touch-screen and the brain wave studies can be completed in one visit, or we can schedule multiple visits, whatever works best for your schedule. You (or your child) will receive $60 once you have completed the two brain wave and touch-screen sessions. If transportation is a problem, we are also able to pay up to $10 per session for transportation.

Before each child is enrolled in the research program, several screening tests will be done. These tests include a hearing screening, an oral-motor exam, a speech sound (articulation) test, language tests, and an intelligence test. This battery of tests is a standard part of enrollment in any speech therapy program. Parents will also have to complete a brief questionnaire on their child’s health and learning history. The results of these screening tests will help us determine if each child meets the minimum criteria for participation in our research program and if there are other factors that may be affecting a child’s sound learning.

If test results indicate that a child is eligible, the child may participate in the study. When your child is enrolled in the research program, a thorough analysis of each child’s speech first will be completed. The analysis involves tape-recording a child’s speech in different situations, such as story-telling and picture-naming. The tape recordings will then be analyzed for sound use. Based on the results of the analysis, a speech therapy program, specific to each child’s needs, will be developed.

If you are interested in having your child participate in this research program, please contact me at the email below.