Phonological Contrast Approaches

Pros & Cons

Summary

Other Ways of Forming Word Pairs

Cons:

Pros:

• pair 2 target phonemes, both absent in the child's speech

• involves pairs of words that help teach the child discriminated learning of correct productions of incorrectly produced or omitted sounds

• Different learning capacity and age of children may affect the efficiency of phonological contrast treatments.

• Phonological contrast is efficient for teaching target sounds that are currently absent in the child’s phonemic inventories, especially through maximal contrast.

• more efficient to select two error sounds that are maximally different

• minimal pairs- the target and the comparison sound differ by a single feature

Major or Non- Major Class Distinctions

• Phonological contrast teaches a child sound pairs that illustrate distinctive difference and thereby reduces the occurrence of homonymy in the sound system.

• If children were unable to produce the target sound in words, and the SLP presents them with a semantic confusion resulting from the error, children are likely to experience frustration and failure due to an inability to correct the production to disambiguate the message.

• major class distinctions: syllabic, consonantal, sonoric, consonants, vowels, glides obstruents, sonorants

• maximal opposition- the target and comparison sounds differ by multiple features

ex. consonants vs. vowels, glides vs. consonants, obstruents vs. sonorants

• multiple opposition- a training set includes contrasts for all errors, and the entire set that illustrates a rule is taught simultaneously

• non-major class distinctions: manner, place, and voice

• Multiple oppositions may not be well suited for mild phonological impairments.

• Maximal contrast facilitates widespread phonological improvement by using different distinctive features and class distinctions.

ex. place vs. manner, manner vs. voice

Multiple Oppositions

(Multiple Contrasts)

Phonological Contrast Approach

• creates pairs for all of the errors at the same time

• goal: to increase the effectiveness of a child's communication by establishing the lost phonemic contrasts in his or her speech

• used in remediating phonological processes

• useful for kids who substitute one sound for multiple sounds, resulting in the production of the same word for multiple words (homonymy)

• may be used in any treatment where phonemic contrasts would improve speech intelligibility

• 2 or more target sounds with contrasting features are taught in words, phrases, and sentences with help of behavioral techniques

ex. a child who substitutes /t/ for /s/, /k/,/ch/, and /tr/;

substituting the /t/ in the words sip, kip, chip, and trip (they would all read as "tip")

Phonological Contrast

Approach

• 3 therapy approaches to use phoneme contrasts: minimal contrast, maximal contrast, and multiple contrasts

Minimal contrast

(Minimal Pair Method)

Maximal Contrast

• pairs contain all three contrasts (manner, place, voicing)

• Limited to one or just a few features

ex. "chop" & "mop"

GROUP 6

• Used more often than maximal or multiple oppositions

• only contrast two at a time (like minimal pairs), but the features on which the sounds contrast are multiple

• Effective with the framework of distinctive feature therapy

• errors are not used for comparison; a correctly produced word is used as the comparison for the target word

• case studies support effectiveness of this study

• after formation of the maximal pairs, treatment continues like the minimal pairs approach

Erika Cook, Abigail Flournoy, Michele Williams, Amanda Bowen, and Haukei Lam

Minimal Contrast

Minimal Contrast

(Minimal Pair Method)

General Procedures:

• select 8-10 word pairs representing the contrast

• classic version requires word pairs contrasting the child's typical (error) production

ex. tea for key or date for gate

• clinician will select pictures of those minimal pairs for stimulus

• if the error doesn't result in a meaningful word, it can be given meaning by the clinician

Production Training

Perceptual Training

• child is required to produce the selected minimal pairs

Next step in minimal pair therapy (not always necessary)

ex: final consonant deletion- bow/boat; toe/toad

Training Sequence Example:

• clinician gives the child a word & he/she must select the image of the two pictures (minimal pairs) that matches that word

1. word pairs are placed in front of child; target and contrast word is modeled; child is asked to imitate them

2. multiple opportunities provided for child to produce target and contrast words in imitative trials

3. child is reinforced for correct production of target and contrast words

• No compelling evidence to support the perceptual training step

GAME TIME!

4. child is then asked to name the pictures without modeling; when word is produced, clinician gives them the picture of the word; when spoken correctly, child is given the picture & positive reinforcement

http://www.superteachertools.com/jeopardyx/jeopardy-review-game.php?gamefile=1352343567