1. The Effects of Rapid Auditory Discrimination on Articulation Improvement
Rebekah Foster, B.S. Ed.
Melissa Carter, M.S., CCC-SLP
Valdosta State University

2. Disclosure Statement
No authors had any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest associated with the content of this presentation.

3. Background
Articulation refers to the totality of movements involved in the production of speech sounds (Bauman-Waengler, 2016)
When a speech sound is not mastered by a specific age, it’s diagnosed as an articulation disorder

4. Background
Auditory discrimination is the ability to distinguish between closely related speech sounds
Automaticity plays an important role in auditory perception
A process is considered automatic if it nearly always becomes active in response to a particular input (Kapatsinski, 2010)

5. Research Question & Hypothesis
Can rapid auditory discrimination be used as a treatment to improve articulation abilities?
It is hypothesized that the automaticity of rapid auditory discrimination will improve the accuracy of articulation

6. Methods
Participant was a 6 year old male with an articulation disorder
SuperLab 5 was used to administer rapid auditory discrimination
/g/ and /ʤ/ in initial position of words

7. Methods Six sessions: Two baseline sessions before experiment
Two sessions including rapid auditory discrimination treatment
Two baseline sessions after experiment

8. Results
During the first two sessions, the participant did not produce any of the target words correctly
Articulation accuracy improved with rapid auditory discrimination treatment
Results remained the same for the two sessions after experiment

9. Results

10. Discussion
The hypothesis which stated that rapid auditory discrimination can improve the accuracy of articulation was accepted
Rapid auditory discrimination treatment improved articulation accuracy

11. Limitations
The study lacked diversity because it involved only one participant

12. Recommendations
Involve a larger scale of participants with articulation disorders
Variety of ages and severity

13. References
Bauman-Waengler, J. A. (2016). Articulation and Phonology in Speech Sound Disorders: A Clinical Focus. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson 5-8.
Kapatsinski, V. (2010). Frequency of Use Leads to Automaticity of Production: Evidence from Repair in Conversation. Language and Speech, 53(1), doi: /
Weiner, P. S. (1967). Auditory Discrimination and Articulation. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 32, doi: /jshd