Change in Communicative-Participation in Children with Speech Sound Disorders Perceived by Parents and Graduate Students

Introduction: It is difficult to measure the progress of children with severe speech sound disorder (SSD) with regards to their speech production accuracy. While norm-referenced tests of articulation can be used to measure these children’s abilities to produce speech sounds accurately, progress is unlikely to be observed on these measures following short periods of speech therapy. The Focus on the Outcomes of Children Under Six (FOCUS-34; Thomas-Stonell et al., 2012) is a questionnaire that can be used to measure the progress of children with severe SSD (Thomas-Stonell, Oddson, Robertson, Walker, & Rosenbaum, 2013). The current pilot study aims to determine if two different raters, in this case, caregivers and graduate student clinicians, perceive a child’s communication-participation skills similarly before and after receiving speech therapy, using the FOCUS-34 to measure a child\u27s communication-participation skills. Methods: The FOCUS-34 was administered to the parents and treating graduate clinicians of seven children participating in an intensive 6-week phonology program pre- and post-intervention. Results: There was no significant correlation between the ratings of parents and clinician at Time 1. Parents’ scores at Time 2 were significantly associated with clinician scores at Time 1