Reducing Consonant Voicing Inconsistency in a Child With a Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss With Computer-Based Visual Feedback

Using a computer-based system that provided visual feedback, a 13-year-old child with a severe-to-profound hearing loss was treated for a pattern of inconsistent consonant devoicing within an ABAB single-subject treatment design with multiple baselines. During a 5-week treatment phase his consonant devoicing was treated to criterion at the consonant-vowel level. A treatment effect was demonstrated and generalization to other phonemes at the CV-syllable level was noted. The child’s intelligibility also improved at the word level but remained low in continuous speech indicating that generalization was restricted to isolated productions. These results suggested that despite a reduction in consonant devoicing, additional treatment sessions and possible changes in the treatment design were needed to stabilize the skill and promote generalization to more complex contexts.