Monitoring and Reinforcement by Parents as a Means of Automating Articulatory Responses

• Published in: Perceptual and motor skills Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 759 - 767
• Main Authors: Shelton, Ralph L., Johnson, Anita F., Arndt, William B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-12-1972; Perceptual and Motor Skills, etc
• Subjects: Child; Humans; Imitative Behavior; Parents; Phonetics; Practice (Psychology); Reading; Reinforcement (Psychology); Reinforcement Schedule; Speech; Speech Disorders - therapy; Speech Therapy; Tape Recording
• ISSN: 0031-5125; 1558-688X
• DOI: 10.2466/pms.1972.35.3.759

A home training program for correction of articulation errors was tested with 8 children. The first week of the program involved short periods of word drill. The remaining 4 wk., parents were to listen daily to 40 conversational /s/ phone productions and to mark each production as correct or incorrect. Correct productions were rewarded by points to be accumulated and traded for prizes. Incorrect productions were corrected by the parent. Final probe scores did not differ significantly from mean baseline scores on a Sound Production Task. However, Talking Task and Reading Task measures showed differences significant at the .05 level. Four-month post-treatment scores indicated that gains made during the program were maintained.