The Australian Research Council (ARC) funded the Sound Start Study to investigate acomputer-basedinterventionforthespeechandemergentliteracyskillsof4-and5-year-oldchildrenwithspeechsounddisorders.

T h i s r e s ea r ch p ro j e c t wa sconductedin6stagesover3years(between 2013 and 2015) andconsideredwhethereducators’useof a computerprogram (PhonemeFactorySoundSorter;PFSS)wouldbenefitchildrenwithspeechsounddisorders.Speechpathologistsandeducators a t Char les S tur tUniversity, The University ofSydney,theUniversityoftheWestofEngland(UK),andtheUniversityofBristol(UK)workedtogethertocompletethisresearch.

Howmanychildrenwereinvolvedoverthethreeyears?

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TheSoundStartStudy

Stage Description Children

1 CaregiverscreeningquestionnairecompletedEducatorscreeningquestionnairecompleted

1,2051,064

2 Screeningassessmentwithaspeechpathologist 275

3 Comprehensiveassessmentwithaspeechpathologist 133

4 Computer-basedtreatment(interventiongroup)Typicalclassroompractice(controlgroup)

6558

5 Follow-upassessment1(immediate) 114

6 Follow-upassessment2(6-8weekslater) 115

Childrenwhostartschoolandhaveongoingspeechsounddifficulties

mayhavedifficultylearningtoread

Learning to read andwrite successfully requires children tostart school with good speech, language, and emergentliteracy skills (e.g., identifying sounds inwords,havingbasicknowledge about letters). Up to 1 in 5 Australian preschoolchildren have difficulty talking and making speech sounds.Speech sound disorders occur when children have difficultyusingandcombiningsoundsinwords.Between30%to77%ofchildrenwhocontinue tohavespeechdifficultieswhentheystart school can have difficulty learning to read. However,preschool-aged children with speech sound disorders maynot see a speech pathologist due to difficulty accessingspeech pathology services and/or a lack of awareness ofspeechsounddisordersandtheirconsequences.

The Sound Start Study explored a new way to supportchildren’s speech sound development at preschool throughusing the Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter (PFSS) computerprogram. With PFSS, educators were able to support first-phase individualised intervention for children with speechsound disorders within their early education environment,following advice from a speech pathologist on the researchteam.

AimsoftheSoundStartStudy

TheSoundStartStudyhadthreeaims:1. todeterminetheeffectivenessofthePhoneme

FactorySoundSorterprograminchangingthespeech,pre-literacy,participation,andwell-beingofchildrenwithspeechsounddisorders

2. todeterminetherelationshipbetweenchildren’sspeecherrorsandsoundprocessingskills,and

3. toexplorechild,family,andenvironmentalfactorsthatareassociatedwithchangesinthespeechofchildrenwithspeechsounddisorder.

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ResearchTeam

ChiefInvestigators ProfessorSharynneMcLeod

DrEliseBaker DrJaneMcCormack

PartnerInvestigators ProfessorSueRoulstone

DrYvonneWren

ResearchStaffDrKateCroweMsSarahMasso

StatisticianDrPaulWhite

ResearchAssistants DrTamaraCumming

MsCharlotteHowland MsFelicityMcKellar

StagesoftheSoundStartStudy45 early childhood centres in the Greater Sydney region participated over the 3 years.Thesecentreswereadministeredbythestategovernment,localgovernment,communitycouncil,denominationalprivateschools,orprivateowners.

Stage1Caregiversandeducatorscompletedquestionnairesdescribingchildren’sdevelopment.

•Morecaregivers(35%)andeducators(37%)wereconcerned about children’s speech andexpressive language,more than any other areaofchildren’sdevelopment

•After communicat ion, caregivers wereconcerned about behaviour then social-emotional,schoolreadiness,receptivelanguage,self-help,finemotor,andgrossmotorskills.

•Parents described how well different peoplecouldunderstandtheirchild’stalking.

•Parents who were not concerned about theirchildren’s speech and language reported thattheir child’s speechwas typicallyunderstoodbythemselves, immediate family, friends andteachers.

Stages2and3Screening assessments with a speech pathologist were offered tochildren whose parents/educators indicated concern about theirspeech development. Comprehensive assessments were thencompletedwithchildrenwhohadaspeechsounddisorder.

Stage4Childrenwererandomlyallocatedtoa‘control’(typicalclassroom)oran‘intervention’condition(usingPFSS).OveralleducatorsworkedhardtofitPFSSsessionsintotheir regular day and commented that theirinvolvementintheresearchstudywasapositiveexperience.

Stage5and6Assessmentswereconductedwithchildrenattheendoftermandthenagain6-8weekslatertomeasurechangesinchildren’sspeechandemergent literacy skills.Analysisofdata is currentlyunderwaytodeterminechangesinchildren’sskills.

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Stage1FastFactsAge:4yearsto5years7months(meanage4years5months)Gender:630malesand575femalesLanguagesused:AllchildrenusedEnglishathomeand/orinearlyeducation.37.4%usedoneormorelanguagesinadditiontoEnglish.68otherlanguageswereusedbychildrenwiththemostfrequentbeingArabic,Urdu,Hindi,Korean,Mandarin,andSpanish.Speechpathology:208childrenhadpreviouslyseenaspeechpathologist

SharingresultsTherehavebeen13conferencepresentations,1book,4bookchapters,and3journalarticlespublishedasaresultof theSoundStart Study.Manymoreareplannednowthatthedatacollectionhasfinished.Topicsdiscussedsofarinclude:• Educators’ perspectives on speech pathology

interventioninpreschools• Homeliteracyandprintknowledgeofchildrenwithspeechsounddisorders• Theproductionof longwordssuchashippopotamus,spaghetti,andescalator

bychildrenwithspeechsounddisorders• Parentandeducatorconcernsaboutpreschoolchildren’sdevelopment• Assessmentofphonologicalawarenessandphonologicalprocessinginchildren

withspeechsounddisorders• Howchildrenwithspeechsounddisordersfeelabouttheirowntalking• Therelationshipbetweendummies,bottles, thumbsuckingandspeechsounddisorders

• Howpreschoolchildren’sspeechisunderstoodbydifferentpeopleintheirlives

Wewouldlovetohearfromyou!Therearethreewaystobeinvolved:

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UPDATESMoreupdatedinformationandresultswillbeavailableatwww.csu.edu.au/research/sound-start

EMAILIfyouhavequestionsaboutthisresearchpleasecontactProfessorSharynneMcLeodatsmcleod@csu.edu.au

GETINVOLVEDIfyouareinterestedinbeinginvolvedinfutureresearchpleaseletusknowatsmcleod@csu.edu.au

Thankyoutothechildren,families,educatorsandearlychildhoodcentreswhoparticipatedintheSoundStartStudy.Thankyouforyoutimeandpatienceandyourhugecontributiontothedatacollectedinthisresearch.

Thank you to the universitieswhohave supported thisresearch: Charles Sturt University, The University ofStudy, University of the West of England, BristolUniversity, Bristol Speech and Language TherapyResearchUnit.

ThankyoualsototheAustralianResearchCouncilandtheDepartmentofEducationandCommunitiesfortheirsupportofthisresearch.

Photographshavebeenusedwiththepermissionofthechildren’sparents