Major focus area

Speech Therapy -> Phonology

Short description

Cycles approach is a phonological pattern approach the SLP designs to treat patients with multiple misarticulations and highly unintelligible speech. The approach consists of treatment cycles that vary between 5 weeks and 16 weeks which include auditory stimulation and production practices (Hodson & Paden, 1983).

Long description

Cycles approach is a phonological pattern approach the SLP designs to treat patients with multiple misarticulations and highly unintelligible speech. The approach consists of treatment cycles that vary between 5 weeks and 16 weeks which include auditory stimulation and production practices.

Method: Arrange a hierarchy of stimulable phonological patterns that occur in at least 40% of the relevant contexts. Treat the most stimulable pattern first, then next most stimulable pattern, and so on. Target only one pattern in any single session. Treat each phoneme within a target pattern for about 60 minutes per cycle (1-60 minutes, 2-30 minutes, 3-20 minutes) before moving to other phonemes within the pattern or to other patterns. Review the prior weeks’ production practice words cards but skip this step if you are introducing a new pattern for treatment. Begin treatment with auditory bombardment of a selected 12 word list. Use five production-practice word cards.

Begin production practice:

1) Ask the client to name about five target pictures.
2) Model the target word; use auditory, tactual, and visual cues
3) engage the client in conversation or use a game format.
4) Probe for stimulability of the next session’s target sounds.
5) Repeat the auditory bombardment; present the same 12 words as before.
6) Ask the family to read the same 12 word list to the patient and ask the patient to name the 5 picture cards used in the production practice.
7) Recycle a pattern that persists in conversation.

(Hodson & Paden, 1983)