Children with Disability research

He has attended daycare since he was 8 weeks old and has suffered chronic ear infections leading to the insertion of tubes several times since he was a toddler. His ENT forewarned his parents that because of the chronic ear infections he might have a speech disorder down the road. Within this paper I will discuss the available literature on speech disorder for various articles analyzed, how Mark’s disorder was identified, the process his family has gone through to receive services, what support he receives from his speech therapist, what articulation disorder is and what role his chronic ear infections may have had in his speech disorder. Research Summary The need to determine the impact of intervention intensity variables through phonological outcomes remains to be an area of interest for researchers on children with communication disorders.

A study by Allen (2013) showed that preschool kids with speech sound disorder who received multiple oppositions approach were likely to show better improvements in interventions when offered a more intensive dose frequency than when provided with less intensive dose frequency (one-time-a-week). Regarding their responsibility role in interventions, some parents expected the SLTs to provide the intervention and were ready to share responsibility in the intervention, although they were not aware of what to do. Concerning how parents perceived the role of the SLTs, the research showed that most parents expected SLTs to act as assessors, interveners, intervention planners and to teach them how they should help their child. For a better intervention, it is important to understand the linguistic and speech characteristics that are specific to each child with articulation disorder.

A study by Kim et al (2017), that sought to analyze linguistic and speech characteristics in kids with articulation disorder as identified in vowel and consonant phonological errors, found out that in terms of adenoidal & plosive consonants abnormality, children with articulation dysfunction showed different characteristics to those with both articulation dysfunction and language delay. Therefore, in determining the kind of intervention for each child, SLTs and parents must try to understand the characteristics of a child’s speech and language abnormality. It is important that a framework is developed that could help guide how SLTs conduct the PCIT program, whether the program should be specific to each child and family or whether it should be universal and if specific, what critical components should the program possess.

This will help in guiding and defining the parents’ role in interventions. In addition, it will help in identifying the challenges and constraints that both parents and the SLTs face throughout the intervention program. These could include lack of support from the community, teachers, or pediatricians. Moreover, they could lack of finances or lack of proper training. Mark’s family had difficulties finding a therapist for him. His father was the first to notice that Mark’s speech and language development was not as expected. He (Mark’s father) realized that Mark’s speech development was not in-line with that of the other children in his class and mentioned this to Mark’s Mom. As per findings of Davies et al (2017), parents have to take an advocacy role after noticing that their child has a speech disorder.

In this case, Mark’s parents were very much willing to play their advocacy role in discussing the condition of their child with the teachers and with Mark’s pediatrician. Mark’s Mom had worked for the state in foster care and recalled a local company she had been involved with. After careful consideration, they proceeded to have him tested by this company. Mark did have an articulation disorder after being assessed using two different methods. His parents were quite shocked when they were told their cost would be $100 a session. Their insurance company rejected the therapy several times before approving it. If you cut the therapy out, you will have issues with the public especially the parents. The teacher appreciated the role of the county in funding the schools to ensure that the services that they offer to children are appreciated, even by the society.

Another important thing to appreciate from the role that the government plays is that according to IDEA; Mark is entitled to a free appropriate education now since he qualified through the school system for speech (Horne, 2015). I would recommend that parents take time with their children at home to help reduce incidences of speech and language disorders with their children. From this research, it came out clearly that: parents do not implement recommendations from SLTs and thus do not talk to their children and help develop language and speech as required by PCIT program. It also explores the experiences of parents as they try to secure a therapy for their disabled child; the challenges they face, their role in the therapy and the kind of support they get from community services and the government.