Auditory-Perceptual Training Via Telepractice

Summary

The objective of this study is to measure the effects of online perceptual training on perception and production in children with RSE who exhibit atypical perception relative to norms from our lab-based pilot data. In a multiple-baseline across-subjects design, 10 children with RSE will begin in a baseline phase probing perceptual acuity for /r/. Perceptual training with multiple types of stimuli will be initiated in a staggered fashion. Production probes elicited before and after treatment will assess the extent to which perception gains transfer to /r/ production.

Conditions

• Speech Sound Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Perceptual training

Perceptual training involves self-paced presentation of auditory stimuli via a computerized software program. Stimuli are organized into three separate tasks: Tasks 1 and 3 will train category goodness judgment: Participants will hear 75 naturally produced speech tokens containing /r/ from various speakers, with a balance of correct and incorrect productions. They will classify each /r/ as correct or incorrect and receive feedback on the accuracy of their classification. Tasks 1 and 3 differ in that task 1 will feature a subset of items designed to provide focused practice on a specific context (e.g., initial /r/ as in red; /r/ as syllable nucleus as in sir), with increasing difficulty over time, whereas task 3 will feature randomly selected items representing all contexts and difficulty levels. Task 2: Participants will hear 75 items drawn from the synthetic rake-wake continuum used in the identification task administered at baseline.

BEHAVIORAL

Production training

Instruction: Discuss tongue shapes for /r/. Pre-practice: relatively unstructured, highly interactive elicitation; provide models and placement cue and KP on every trial. Structured syllable practice: Practice will occur in blocks of 10 consecutive trials on the same syllable (e.g., 10 /ra/), after which a new syllable will be addressed (e.g., 10 /re/--but note that in the fully blocked condition, the same syllable should occur in two consecutive blocks of 10).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

  collaborator NIH

• Syracuse University

  collaborator OTHER

• New York University

  collaborator OTHER

• Montclair State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Elaine R. Hitchcock, PhD · Montclair State University

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

9 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-01-21

Primary Completion

2024-06-30

Completion

2024-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations