An intervention case study of a bilingual child with phonological disorder

Abstract

A bilingual Punjabi-English-speaking child, whose speech was characterized by inconsistent errors in both languages, participated in an intervention programme. A core vocabulary therapy approach was used targeting consistency of production. The accuracy and intelligibility of the child’s speech improved in both languages, even though therapy had only been provided in English. The results of the study contrast with a previous study targeting consistent phonological errors in a bilingual child. While the results of single case studies should be interpreted with caution, the findings suggest that phonological therapy targeting the deficit underlying speech disorder is effective in remediating the errors in both of the child’s languages. However, therapy simply correcting specific surface speech patterns is only effective in the language targeted in therapy. These data have theoretical implications regarding the nature of phonological disorders, and the separateness of bilingual children’s phonological systems. There are also clinical implications regarding intervention for bilingual children with disordered speech.