Uso de feedback visual con ecografía en la intervención de las dificultades de articulación en niños con discapacidad auditiva. Una valoración por jueces expertos: logopedas

Objective

This study aims to measure the effectiveness of visual biofeedback using ultrasound in addressing articulatory difficulties in children with hearing disabilities, using the judgment of experts through an auditory perception test. It is the first research of this type carried out with a Spanish-speaking population.

Method

A speech therapy intervention program was conducted with seven children with cochlear implants and/or hearing aids. External speech therapists evaluated the results through an auditory perception test that reproduces the acoustic stimuli derived from the initial (pre-test) and final (post-test) evaluations. These stimuli are presented in pairs with the assistance of a script created in MATLAB®, in two different ways: pre-post and post-pre.

Results

Results from generalized mixed-effects models indicate that, at a group level, speech therapists perceive improvements mainly in the phonemes /n/ and /r/, and in some children, in the phonemes /x/, /ɡ/, /ɾ/, /r/, /tʃ/, and /l/. The position of the phoneme within the word does not have a significant effect at the group level but does in two participants. The number of syllables in the stimuli has a significant effect at the group level for all levels.

Conclusions

These results align with previous research demonstrating the efficacy of visual biofeedback in correcting articulation errors in speech therapy intervention.