Recommended Books
Readers are directed to these excellent books to support their practice in this phonological and articulation treatment. No clinical office would be complete without these indispensable resources.
Phonological Treatment Resources
International Language and Dialect Resources
Sound Placement Resources
Eliciting Sounds: Techniques and Strategies for Clinicians: Dr. Wayne Secord and his coauthors (2007) provide exhaustive strategies in the second edition of his book. These strategies target all sounds in English and special chapters address the challenges of treating the /r/ sound and remediating lisp patterns.
The Late Eight: Dr. Ken Bleile (2005) offers helpful lists and techniques to elicit the latest-developing sounds in his book. Moreover, his book is accompanied by a CD with all of the featured information for ease of use.
Articulatory and Phonological Impairments: A Clinical Focus: Dr. Jacqueline Bauman-Waengler (2007) authored this excellent text that addresses assessment and treatment of various speech sound disorders. In particular, she presents a chapter on phonetic placement strategies that is particularly useful with children who are nonstimulable for certain sounds.
Speech Sounds: A Pictorial Guide to Typical and Atypical Speech: This book features images of how consonants and vowels of English are produced and informs SLPs how to teach sounds.
Seeing Speech: A Quick Guide to Speech Sounds: This flip book demonstrates how to produce sounds and the similarities and differences between sounds.
Phonological Treatment Resources
Phonological Disorders in Children: This comprehensive resource offers cutting-edge research from the field's top phonologists. In particular, Dr. A. Lynn Williams offered the following astute advice in her chapter entitled "From Developmental Norms to Distance Metrics: Past, Present, and Future Directions for Target Selection Practices":
Any phonological intervention program should be structured to include the following goals:
1. Provide opportunities for the child to discover the rule(s) that are being trained
2. Provide focused practice on the new target(s) in order for them to become automatic
3. Provide the child with linguistic/communicative feedback with regard to the semantic meaning of the child's production
4. Provide opportunities to practice the new target(s) in naturalistic play activities
Practitioners are encouraged to access this invaluable resource to learn more about current best practices.
Children's Speech Sound Disorders: Dr. Caroline Bowen's comprehensive text on speech sound disorders is highly recommended. She has synthesized the research findings into this extensive, accessible volume. Moreover, many leading researchers in this area contributed essays on various topics, including generalization, application of complexity principles and the lack of evidence for non-speech oral motor exercises.
Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children: Dr. Williams, Dr. McLeod and Dr. McCauley provides an overview of several treatment methodologies. It is also accompanied by a DVD that features video demonstrations of key principles.
Speech & Language Development & Intervention in Down Syndrome & Fragile X Syndrome: This text summarizes the research studies that have focused on children and adults with Down Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome. It is highly recommended for speech-language pathologists who serve both populations.
Working with Families in Speech-Language Pathology: Dr. Watts Pappas and Dr. McLeod share theoretical perspectives and things to consider when collaborating with families of children with communication disorders.
Listening to Children and Young People with Speech, Language and Communication Needs: The contributing authors share the importance of interpersonal relationships with students and clients.
International Language and Dialect Resources
International Guide to Speech Acquisition: Dr. Sharynne McLeod's book is also highly recommended because it includes phonological information about 22 languages and 12 English dialects.
Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children: This book from Dr. Sharynne McLeod and Dr. Brian Goldstein offers principles for assessment and intervention of children who are exposed to more than one language. It features the work of researchers who consider multicultural and multilingual issues for people with speech sound disorders.
Children's Books
The Cow That Went Oink: This delightful book by Bernard Most features two characters who overcome their speech differences through perseverance and conversational recasts. It can serve as a springboard for discussion with students about difficulties with speech sounds and corresponding social consequences.
It's a Monster Party: This charming book by Tasha Pym and Charles Fuge tells the story of monsters from two different planets who come together for a party. They find that they have more similarities than differences and that their new friendship is worth celebrating. Interested SLPs may choose to use this to create a nonword story by renaming prominent characters with nonwords featuring complex targets.
Splat the Cat: This appealing book by Rob Scotton features a loveable character named Splat the Cat. Reading this with children offers several opportunities for them to practice three-element clusters in a story format. My colleague in San Diego Unified, Kelly Perry, uses this with many of her preschoolers who demonstrate phonological disorders.
Other books featuring Splat the Cat:
Love, Splat (Rob Scotton)
Merry Christmas, Splat (Rob Scotton)
Splat the Cat Sings Flat (Rob Scotton)
Scaredy-Cat, Splat! (Rob Scotton)
Splat the Cat: Where's the Easter Bunny? (Rob Scotton)
Splish Splash Spring: This whimsical book by Jan Carr tells the story of four friends exploring the great outdoors on a rainy day. Reading this with children offers several opportunities for them to practice three-element clusters in a story format. My colleague in San Diego Unified, Kelly Perry, uses this with many of her preschoolers who demonstrate phonological disorders. It may be best to have children say "splish splash" when practicing.
Miscellaneous Resources
40,000 Selected Words: This classic text by Blockcolsky provides exhaustive lists of words organized by sounds. Every SLP needs this in his/her collection of resources.
Handbook for Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders: This ground-breaking text by Dr. Christine Dollaghan provides a framework for applying evidence-based practice with an emphasis on three kinds of evidence, thus it is called E3BP. Dollaghan clearly delineates and specifies the three aspects of E3BP as taking into account: 1) the best available external evidence (relying on evidence from systematic research), 2) the best available evidence internal to clinical practice (relying on clinical expertise and training) and 3) the best available evidence concerning client preferences (looking at client characteristics). The author suggests that successful application of E3BP should be marked by the following: an open mind about various theoretical perspectives, professional integrity and clinically ethical behavior. In particular, Dollaghan cautioned “Seeking evidence not in an effort to reduce honest uncertainty but rather in an effort to prove what one already believes is contrary to the fundamental thrust of E3BP.” With these principles in mind, clinicians must consider the best available external evidence to date.
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