Highly Unintelligible Speech Part 2

In my 34 year career, I’ve seen a certain pattern several times in highly unintelligible 4 and 5 year olds. This was their profile:

Phonological processes of fronting (t/k, d/g), stopping (t/sh,s, d/z, b/v, p/f, t,d/th), consonant cluster reduction (p/pl, p/sp), FCD (kni/knife, da/that), deaffrication (t/ch, d/j) and gliding/vowelization for /r/ (wud/rug, dee-e/deer).

Using the SATPAC Approach, I’ve had excellent success using two lists targeting different processes. The list OKKOP targets fronting and final consonant deletion. The list EESNEEP targets stopping, cluster reduction and final consonant deletion. The tricky part is figuring out what sounds to exclude. For OKKOP, you exclude all the sounds they can’t say plus /t,d/ which would interfere with the target back sounds /k,g/. For EESNEEP, you again exclude all the sounds they can’t say plus /t,d/ which would interfere with the fricatives /s,z/. In the cluster SN in EESNEEP, N is chosen because the student can say the word EESNEEP without a stop (until the end). If N were not chosen and it was EESTEEP for example, they would continue to use the stopping process and say EETEEP.

After a while, they reduce their phonological processes to deaffrication and gliding/vowelization and some inconsistency with the cluster reduction (now using s-clusters). Their speech has gone from highly unintelligible to mostly intelligible!

Stephen SacksSATPAC Speech

Workshops: I will be doing two workshops in So. Cal October 3rd and 4th. Registration will be $59 or $159 with the purchase of the SATPAC Program (Program normally $150 by itself). SATPAC is a growing company and our computer program is being used by universities, hospitals, clinics and school districts all around the world. We are looking for people to market SATPAC in their geographical areas part-time on a commission basis. Contact steve@satpac.comsteve@satpac.com if you are interested or have friends or associates who might be.