Speech therapists (also known as speech pathologists) strive to provide the most effective treatment for people with speech and communication disorders. To learn more about the benefits of speech therapy, families in Murphy, Texas can visit Speech And OT. For several years, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has been collecting data through the National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS).
Which factors can best influence treatment progress
Through NOMS, speech pathologists collect data to determine which factors can best influence treatment progress.
NOMS uses Functional Communication Measures (FCMs) scales. These are disorder-specific assessments from the least functional (Level 1) to the most functional (Level 7). With articulation, Level 1 would indicate that speech cannot be understood even by familiar listeners. A child may initially be at this level or higher. Progress is measured at several levels, with level 7 indicating that a child’s associated language is more likely to be that expected for chronological peers.
Children who received individual therapy
NOMS data before kindergarten confirms some important findings for pediatric speech therapy. In measuring articulatory progress, children who received individual therapy made significantly more progress than children who were cared for in a group. In addition, more treatment hours meant more progress.
Articulation Therapy.
Progress with 10.1 – 20 hours of treatment: Individual – 80%, Group 42%
Progress in 20.1-40 hours of treatment: individual – 91%, group – 50%.
Another important result in terms of progress in articulation is that the completion of a structured home program, accompanied by at least 10 hours of individual treatment, was the most significant advance for children.
Progress in several stages with more than 10 hours of therapy
Progress in several stages with more than 10 hours of therapy and without a home program: 45%
Progress on multiple levels with more than 10 hours of therapy and a consistent home program: 83%
The NOMS data support the critical importance of family involvement to ensure the most effective progress in articulation therapy. It is important to use the services of a speech pathologist to demonstrate strategies and provide training for home practice.
Support home programs to ensure that the family has a clear understanding of the sounds
The speech pathologist should provide images to support home programs to ensure that the family has a clear understanding of the sounds and positions the child needs for the current practice. The data also show that individualized treatment is much more effective for articulation disorders. Individual therapy is often a covered benefit in many private insurance plans as well as Medicaid.
