Phonological Principles - Caroline Bowen PhD

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Phonological Principles
Copyright © 1999 Caroline Bowen

"The defining characteristic of phonological therapy is
that it is ‘in the mind’" Grunwell, 1988

The terms phonological therapy and phonological remediation permeate the current speech-language pathology literature. They are often used ambiguously, and it is not always clear whether they refer to intervention for developmental phonological disorders, or intervention that is, by nature, somehow 'phonological'.

Phonological Therapy
The term 'phonological therapy' is used throughout this web site to mean the application of phonological principles to the treatment of children with developmental phonological disorders (also called 'phonological impairment', etc!). Stoel-Gammon and Dunn (1985, page 168) provided a neat summation of the principles of phonological therapy. They believed that it:

(1) is based on the systematic nature of phonology;
(2) is characterised by conceptual, rather than motoric, activities; and,
(3) has generalisation as its ultimate goal

In general agreement, Grunwell (1985) said that the aim of the therapy was: "...to facilitate cognitive reorganisation of the child’s phonological system and his phonologically-oriented processing strategies" (p. 99).

Similarly, Fey (1992) stated that: "phonological therapy approaches are designed to nurture the child’s system rather than simply to teach new sounds" (p.277).

PACT: A broad-based approach
PACT (Bowen and Cupples, 1998a, 1998b) is a broad-based approach to phonological therapy. Kamhi (1992) used the term ‘broad-based’ when he argued the need for a treatment methodology that had some explanatory value, stating that: "Such models are consistent with assessment procedures that are comprehensive in nature and treatment procedures that focus on linguistic, as well as motoric, aspects of speech" (p. 261).

References

Bowen, C. & Cupples, L. (1999a). Parents and children together (PACT): a collaborative approach to phonological therapy. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Vol 34 No 1, 35-55.

Bowen, C. & Cupples, L. (1999b).A phonological therapy in depth: a reply to commentaries. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Vol 34 No 1, 65-83.

Fey, M.E. (1992). Clinical Forum: Phonological assessment and treatment. Articulation and phonology: An addendum. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 23, 277 - 282.

Kamhi, A.G. (1992). Clinical forum: Phonological assessment and treatment. The need for a broad-based model of phonological disorders. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 23, 261-268.
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Grunwell, P. (1988). Comment on ‘Helping the development of consonant contrasts’. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 4, 57-59.

Grunwell, P. (1985). Phonological Assessment of Child Speech (PACS). Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
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Stoel-Gammon, C., & Dunn, C. (1985). Normal and abnormal phonology in children. Austin Texas: Pro-Ed. Inc.

Page updated 13 May 2009

http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/PhonologicalPrinciples.htm