The use of electropalatography (EPG) in the assessment and treatment of motor speech disorders in children with Down's syndrome: Evidence from two case studies

Abstract

Background: Many children experience significant difficulties in developing key aspects of speech. For some, these communication difficulties are compounded by co-occurring intellectual disabilities.

Method: This paper presents two case studies from a larger on-going longitudinal study of the effectiveness of using electropalatography (EPG) to address the intelligibility problems experienced by many children and young people with Down's syndrome (DS). EPG, an innovative computer-based tool for assessing and treating speech motor difficulties, enables the speaker to ‘see’ the placement of his or her tongue during speech and to attempt to correct any lingual palatal errors.

Results: This visual supplementation of auditory feedback offers potential therapeutic benefits for children with intellectual disabilities, many of whom show relative strengths in visual vs. auditory and simultaneous vs. sequential processing. EPG also provides therapists with an objective measure of articulatory ability.

Conclusions: Findings from these two case studies demonstrate the potential utility of EPG in both the assessment and treatment of speech motor disorders in DS.

• Electropalatography
• motor speech disorders
• Down's syndrome
• articulation
• intelligibility

Notes

¹Phonetic symbols will be used throughout this paper as is the convention when reporting on speech sounds—here, /s/ as in sun, /z/ as in zoo, /∫/ as in shoe, // as in measure, /t∫/ as in chew, /d/ as in jelly.