Fit4Speech - Development of materials for the intervention for 4 to 7 year old children with speech sound disorders

Language acquisition is a precondition for oral communication, literacy, and social aspects of life. Up to 16.3 % of all children in Germany are affected by speech sound disorders. Difficulties with the speech processing system (e.g. listening, discriminating speech sounds, etc.) can have an impact on the development of literacy and placing the child at risk of dyslexia.

In Austria, two intervention approaches for children with speech sound disorders are usually used: articulatory oriented- and phonologically oriented-approaches. Traditionally clinicians focus on the articulation production because the child´s errors are assumed to be motor-based. Clinicians usually use a variety of techniques, strategies and approaches to adapt their treatment approach to the needs of the individual client.

The aim of the project was to develop an app prototype to acquire the sound of “sch” in daily communication situations using systematic, motivational exercises. The intervention-program offers children aged four to seven years the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the acoustic-phonetic characteristics of the phonological unit (articulation awareness) and awareness of the underlying structure of the sound system of the language (phonemic awareness). As part of an iterative process in an interdisciplinary and inter-professional team, an app for standard tablets was developed.

The project Fit4Speech acknowledges the financial support within the COIN – Netzwerke, managed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency and with the financial resources of bmwf.

• further Project team: Elisabeth Haider MSc