Age-related Correlates of Treatment for Late-acquired Sounds

Late-acquired sounds, such as /r/ are difficult to learn and many children experience persistent errors on these sounds. However, these sounds are often treated later in a child's life because they are not expected to be fully acquired until quite late--age 7-8 for some sounds. This practice places treatment in a time of the child's development in which they struggle to learn new sounds.The purpose of the present study is to determine whether treating these sounds earlier in the child's life may result in better outcomes, and to examine treatment efficacy and efficiency for two methods of treatment.