Operant Conditioning for Investigating Speech Sound Discrimination in Aphasic Children

Abstract

The present study utilized operant conditioning to investigate aphasic children’s speech sound discrimination. Eight aphasic children ranging in age from four to eight years were compared with eight normal children. Six sound discrimination tasks, arranged in a hierarchy of levels of difficulty, were administered to the children. Aphasic children discriminated between isolated sounds as frequently as normal children, but performed significantly more poorly in discriminating sounds within a phonetic environment. The aphasic children also required more trials to reach criterion, and demonstrated fewer instances of improved performance.