An analysis of a treatment approach for phonological errors in polysyllabic words

Treatment effects on errors in polysyllabic words were investigated in four adult subjects with developmental phonological disorders. The subjects had long-standing histories of linguistic disorders and academic difficulties suggestive of learning disabilities. A multiple-baseline research design across subjects was used to train the subjects, in sequence, to produce polysyllabic words correctly. The treatment method used a mnemonic consisting of auditory and visual cues for each syllable, to help the subjects to perceive and produce the target words correctly. Generalization effects to untrained words were assessed throughout treatment. The treatment used was found to be effective, and it resulted in almost completely eliminating errors on the trained words. A follow-up probe demonstrated that the effects of treatment were stable over time for all subjects. The strength of the generalization effects varied across subjects, with two of the four subjects showing substantial reduction in errors on untrained words several weeks after treatment was completed.