Does Mixed-Up Marty help children to Improve their speech?

Objective: Children with speech sound disorders make up a large portion of speech and language therapy waiting lists. As a consequence, it is necessary to investigate alternative methods of service delivery. This study explores the effect of a novel parent-implemented, no training needed home programme (HP) using an input only approach. Method: Thirteen children aged 3;3 to 5;9 with diagnoses of phonological delay or disorder took part and received the same HP. Participant’s productions on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) phonology subtest were measured in terms of Percentage Consonants Correct (PCC). PCC was compared pre and post HP. For four children these figures were also compared with the change following a five week no treatment period, and for another three children following a five week period of structured interaction prior to the HP. Results: The results from this study show that the HP has a statistically significant effect. However, the changes made were too small to be clinically significant. Conclusions: Demonstrating effectiveness of intervention can be challenging as rate of change may be slow for children with speech sound disorders. A diagnostic assessment may not capture the changes made, which suggests an alternative outcome measure may be necessary. Reports from parents and informal observations by the investigators suggest that improvements were made beyond what was shown in the DEAP phonology subtest. This study demonstrates that the novel HP used may help some children with speech sound disorders. Abbreviations: HP = Home Programme; DEAP = Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology; PCC = Percentage Consonants Correct; HSE = Health Service Executive; SSD = Speech Sound Disorders; SLT = Speech and Language Therapist; PD = Phonological Delay; CPD = Consistent Phonological Disorder; sSLT = Student Speech and Language Therapist; NTGp = No Treatment Group; 1-1Gp = One-to-one Group; PPGp = Pre-Post only Group; T1= Assessment Time 1 for Case 1-7; T2 All cases assessments pre HP; T3 = All cases assessments post HP