Intervention Approaches used for Speech Sound Disorders in Children in Tertiary Care Hospitals, Karachi

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the most common intervention approach used by speech, language therapists to remediate speech sound disorders in children, working in tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. In addition the study examined responses commonly provided by the clinician as contingency responses for the correct and incorrect production of a sound. Methods: Cross sectional study was conducted with speech language therapists working with children who are presenting with the concerns of speech sound disorders. Questionnaire containing multiple choice questions was designed and shared online with speech, language therapists working in tertiary care hospitals. Simple random sampling technique was used and 43 responses were recorded and stored in a Google sheet. Results: IBM SPSS statistics was used for qualitative data analysis, findings revealed that more than half of the total participants use aspects of traditional motor approaches in the selecting the target production of a sound, level at which the sound is to be targeted, elicitation techniques used to elicit desired production of a sound and in making decisions to move towards next step of therapy plan. 55.8% of the total participants reported to use verbal, tactile and kinesthetic cues and prompts as the common contingency responses. Conclusion: These findings contribute to the existing state of knowledge about the treatment approaches used by speech, language pathologists for children presenting with speech sound disorders. The application of traditional motor approach with combined elements of other intervention approaches i.e. sensory perceptual approach and cyclic approach to intervention was seen to be more common.