Effectiveness of the Core Vocabulary Approach for Treatment of Inconsistent Phonological Disorder: A Case Report

One of the therapeutic approaches that improves speech intelligibility is core vocabulary approach. The core vocabulary intervention with the purpose of producing consistent words has been appropriate in functional speech sound disorders and in this disorder, the child articulates the same lexical items as inconsistently in the absence of speech apraxia. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the core vocabulary approach on speech intelligibility of a child with inconsistent phonological disorder.

The patient was a four-year-old boy who was given birth after a term pregnancy and via vaginal delivery. The parents referred to the Speech Therapy Clinic complaining about the child’s speech unintelligibility.

According to Clinical Problem Solving Model for speech and language pathologist, assessment data were analyzed to address seven case management questions regarding the need for intervention, service delivery, differential diagnosis, intervention goals, and generalization of therapeutic gains, discharge criteria, and evaluation of efficacy. After appropriate assessments, he was diagnosed as having inconsistent phonological disorder from articulation disorder category that required intervention. The present study reports on the clinical observations, inconsistent phonological disorder diagnosis process, the nature and protocol of core vocabulary approach, and the progress of the patient's speech and language over the course of treatment.

According to the results and assessment data, the core vocabulary approach was chosen as the most appropriate and frequent therapy technique in inconsistent phonological disorders. The obtained results, similar to the previous studies, showed that the core vocabulary approach is effective in enhancing the consistent production and other speech and language skills.  To ensure confidence in the effectiveness of core vocabulary approach, further studies are necessary on more sample and in other languages.