Recruiting
Phase 2
Phase 3

Phonological Awareness

Sponsor:

McGill University

Code:

NCT00818428

Conditions

Speech Articulation Disorder

Developmental Articulation Disorder

Phonological Impairment

Dyslexia

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 4 - 5

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Speech Production Intervention

Speech Perception Intervention

Articulation Parent Group

Dialogic Reading Parent Group

Study Details

Brief summary:

Recent research reveals genetic and symptomatic overlap among children with speech sound disorders (i.e., those who (misarticulate more sounds than would be expected for their age) and children with dyslexia (i.e., those who struggle to learn to read). Children who have speech sound disorders as preschoolers are at risk for the later emergence of dyslexia, a risk that often reveals itself in the form of poor phonological awareness skills during the preschool period. Traditional speech therapy methods focus on articulation accuracy and do not focus on the child's more abstract knowledge of the sound system of the language. The ultimate objective of this research program is to prevent reading disability in children who present with speech sounds disorders. The relative effectiveness of different interventions to help these children achieve age-appropriate phonological processing skills prior to school entry will be investigated. It is expected that a combination of treatment approaches that focus on speech perception skills and vocabulary knowledge will have a superior impact on phonological awareness in comparison with a treatment approach that focuses solely on articulation accuracy.

Conditions

Speech Articulation Disorder

Developmental Articulation Disorder

Phonological Impairment

Dyslexia

Study ID

NCT00818428

Start date

Nov, 2008

Status verified date

Sep, 2009

Completion date

Jul, 2010

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jul, 2010

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 4 - 5

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • primary diagnosis of speech articulation disorder/phonological impairment
  • age 4 to 5 years of age at onset of treatment
  • maternal language Canadian French (at least 75% exposure)
  • must misarticulate at least two phonemes that would typically be mastered by their normally developing age peers

Exclusion Criteria:

  • speech disorder is secondary to a primary condition (e.g., hearing impairment, cleft palate, autism, Down syndrome etc.)

Study Design

Enrollment

96 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Factorial

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

active comparator: 1

Speech Production Intervention + Articulation Parent Group

experimental: 2

Speech Production Intervention + Dialogic Reading Parent Group

experimental: 3

Speech Perception Intervention + Articulation Parent Group

experimental: 4

Speech Perception Intervention + Dialogical Reading Parent Group

Interventions

Speech Production Intervention

Individual speech therapy directed at teaching the child to articulation specific speech sounds or word shapes accurately using traditional procedures such as phonetic placement and imitated and spontaneous speech production practice with feedback from the clinician about accuracy of articulatory gestures and knowledge of results.

Speech Perception Intervention

Individualized intervention in which the Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System is used to teach the child to identify recordings of words as either correct or incorrect pronunciations of the target word. In the event that the child is completely unable to pronounce the target speech sounds or word shapes focused stimulation activities are used to provide the child with further auditory exposure to the target forms. If the child stimulable for the target forms, the child is given opportunities the produce the target speech sounds or word shapes in the context of minimal pair games in which the child receives feedback about the communicative effectiveness of his or her attempts to produce the target words.

Articulation Parent Group

Parents are taught to carry out home practice activities that focus on the child's ability to correctly articulate target speech sounds and word shapes.

Dialogic Reading Parent Group

Parents are taught to read to their children using interactive techniques that help their children acquire new vocabulary, verbal reasoning abilities, and preliteracy skills.

Primary outcome measure

  • Phonological Awareness (Test d'Analyse Auditive en Français [Auditory Analysis Test in French]) [ Time Frame: 12 months post treatment onset ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Francoise Brosseau-Lapre, M.Sc.(A)

514-398-4137francoise.brosseau-lapre@mail.mcgill.ca

Locations

McGill University

Recruiting

Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1A8

Contacts

Francoise Brosseau-Lapre, M.Sc. (A)

514-398-4137francoise.brosseau-lapre@mail.mcgill.ca

Principal Investigator:

Susan Rvachew, Ph.D.

Montreal Children's Hospital

Recruiting

Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3H 1P3

Contacts

Francoise Brosseau-Lapre, M.Sc.(A)

514-412-4400francoise.brosseau-lapre@mail.mcgill.ca

Principal Investigator:

Susan Rvachew, Ph.D.

More Information

Sponsor

McGill University

Last update posted

Sep 23, 2009

Last verified

Sep, 2009

Keywords

  • Phonological Awareness
  • Speech Articulation Disorder
  • Development Articulation Disorder
  • Phonological Impairment
  • Dyslexia
  • Speech Therapy
  • School Transition

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by McGill University on 2009-09-23.