AJSLP
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol.11 370-380 November 2002. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2002/041)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow My Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jacoby, G. P.
Right arrow Articles by Creaghead, N. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Jacoby, G. P.
Right arrow Articles by Creaghead, N. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Number of Individual Treatment Units Necessary to Facilitate Functional Communication Improvements in the Speech and Language of Young Children

Gregory P. Jacoby 1
Linda Lee 2
Ann W. Kummer 3
Linda Levin 4

Nancy A. Creaghead 2
1 Detroit Public Schools Detroit, MI
2 Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders University of Cincinnati
3 Speech Pathology Department Children's Hospital Medical Center Cincinnati, OH
4 Center for Biostatistical Services University of Cincinnati

jacobygp{at}hotmail.com

The present study was conducted to determine the average number of treatment units needed to achieve improvements in functional communication. The subjects, ages 3 to 6 years, consisted of 234 children who received speech-language pathology services over a two-year period at Children's Hospital Medical Center (CHMC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Subjects had disorders of articulation and/or language and were rated on all areas of deficit using the ASHA functional communication measures (FCMs) of articulation/intelligibility, spoken language production, and spoken language comprehension. Because many subjects had more than one area of deficit, a total of 394 ratings were obtained.

Results indicated that as the number of treatment units increased, the FCM level improved. These improvements were statistically significant for subjects with articulation/intelligibility and spoken language production disorders only. Younger children received the greatest benefit per units of therapy provided. Children with lower initial functional abilities generally required more units of therapy to demonstrate improvement than children with higher initial ability levels. Children with an associated factor, (i.e., anoxic brain damage, syndromes, hearing loss, etc.) generally required more units of therapy than those who had no other factors, although the results were not statistically significant. The majority of subjects (76.5%) improved by at least one FCM level following 20 hours or more of therapy. There was improvement of two FCM levels in 38.5%, and more than two levels in 18.5% of the overall group. The present study indicates that improvement in FCM abilities is made with treatment, and that the degree of improvement is correlated with the number of treatment units provided.

Key Words: functional communication measures, National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS), outcomes research, accountability

Submitted on June 7, 2001
Accepted on December 11, 2001


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
All ASHA Journals AJA AJSLP JSLHR LSHSS
Copyright © 2002 by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.