My client, J, is 5 years, 5 months old and is still being seen in our clinic, but his frequent absences have proven to be a problem. For our first few sessions, I administered the Goldman-Fristoe 2, as well as the expressive language subtest of the Preschool Language Scale-4 in order to assess J's language and articulation skills. During the testing, I was able to note several of J's articulation errors. Several of the sound's in J's repertoire are not produced correctly, so my supervisor and I had to pick sounds that were more important to acquire/needed in order to work on other errors.
Currently, J's targets in therapy include:
- Initial /'sh'/ in words
- Final /k/ in words
- Initial /f/ in words
- Medial /f/ in syllables and small words
- Correct placement/production of /l/
- Correct placement/production of /j/
J is still presenting several errors, none of his errors seem to be improving by any noticeable degree, and his attendance at therapy sessions would be beneficial. Results of therapy sessions for J vary from week to week. Accuracy rates continue to fluctuate throughout the semester, and J's errors appear to be inconsistent. I do not doubt that J's mother wants to get all the help she can for her child, but frequent absences have made achieving progress difficult. Overall, J's accuracy rates for his errors have improved, but very slightly.
Due to his frequent absences, obtaining new data and a new direction for therapy has been difficult. I firmly believe that due to the number of times J has missed therapy, he has missed out on the benefits that therapy could provide. Granted, I know I'm not a super-clinician. I haven't been at this whole therapy biz for long, but I know enough to realize that missing out on the services that are provided can definitely hinder the success that could potentially be achieved.
There are several techniques that have been identified that could help transfer success into environments outside of the clinic, and I would like to link this article as the reference to my blog. If I do have the opportunity to see J again before the semester ends, I would like to implement some of these strategies and urge clinicians who word with J in the future to do the same. Hopefully, even though J may miss sessions frequently, he may be able to generalize his accuracy in articulation into everyday life.
Reference:
Mowrer, D. E. 1971. Transfer of training in articulation therapy. [Electronic Version].
Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorder, 36, 427-446.