The Effects of Wafer - method on Improvement of Articulation in Hearing Impaired Children

Kang, Ju-Hye; Seok, Dong-Il; Park, Sang-Hee

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2001;5(2): 1-24.

Ju-Hye Kang^` , Dong-Il Seok^` , and Sang-Hee Park^`

강주혜(Ju-Hye Kang)| 석동일(Dong-Il Seok)| 박상희(Sang-Hee Park)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the improvement s of articulation of alveolar consonant s and velar sounds , and to investigate the effect s of transfer of the con sonant s to words when applying tactile feedback by Wafer -method of articulation therapy of the hearing impaired children. Each subject was scheduled for a 30 minute session three times a week. T he subject s received 36 ses sions of articulation training during 4 months. T he treatment design used was a multiple baseline across the subject s. The tactile feedback by Wafer -method was administered to each subject individually . T he result s of this study were as follows ; (1) the alveolar consonant / d/ and the velar con sonant / k/ improved remarkably for all children ; (2) the alveolar con sonant / d/ improved more than the velar / k/ ; (3) the improvement s of objective sound / d/ , independent consonant / k/ and meaningless syllable did not have effect s on transferring to words that were not cured for all children ; (4) the tongue training cour se conducted at the beginning of this program had effect s on the tongue and the mobility and stability of the lower jaw. All children took passive attitude to the tongue training at the beginning of program. And they had difficulty in detaching wafer s that were attached on the upper and lower lips , and on the left and right lips , due to immobility , instability and tension, etc. But , as the frequency of cures increased, the mobility and stability of the tongue improved remarkably , and the children became positive as to the movement of the tongue.