March 4, 2011

Co-articulation: Essential to Therapy for CAS and Helpful to Phonology Therapy

Kay J. Giesecke, MS, CCC-SLP

3205 Cornell Ave. Dallas, TX 75205 (214) 522-5650 kay_giesecke@yahoo.com www.apraxiadallas.com I. Definition of Coarticulation: The influence that sounds exert on one another is called coarticulation, which means that the articulation of any one sound is influenced by a preceding or following sound. (Bernthal, J. & Bankston, N, 1993) II. Importance A) Phonology When targeting the correction of final consonant deletion, generalization is faster when you teach coarticulation between the ending consonant and the subsequent vowel or consonant. When targeting the correction of cluster reduction, you are working on consonant to consonant coarticulation. B) Apraxia Since one of the primary characteristics of Childhood Apraxia of Speech is disrupted coarticulation (ASHA, 2007); then the use of correct coarticulation must be targeted. If only articulation is taught, then the child will usually still sound disjointed, unintelligible, or robotic. III. Different types Anticipatory: An articulatory feature of a sound is evident in the preceding sound. The /h/ in he is produced in a closed mouth, high tongue posture, whereas the /h/ in hop is produced with a open mouth, low tongue posture Retentive: An articulatory feature is retained after its required appearance. The voicing of the final consonant in yell causes a /z/ to be produced in yells and a /d/ to be produced in yelled. In the addition of such morphological endings, voiced follows voiced and voiceless follows voiceless. Anticipatory/retentive combos: Talked In anticipation of adding the past tense ending, the production of /k/ is an unreleased plosive, yet the voicelessness of the /k/ is retained. If the unreleased /k/ was not present, the word would be tot. The above types of coarticulation are from Articulation and Phonological Disorders Third Edition, by Bernthal and Bankston.

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March 4, 2011 IV. Coarticulation Contexts

A. Vowel to Vowel: I B. Vowel to consonant: I need C. Consonant to Vowel: take a D. Consonant to Consonant: bathroom Find other instances and tell what type: I need to take a friend to the bathroom.? V. Further Details on the Coarticulation Contexts A) Vowel to Vowel 1. back to front addition of slight /y/ as in lion or playing 2. rounded to unrounded addition of slight /w/ as in snowing 3. diphthongs often one of the easiest places to start teaching children with CAS to sequence sounds B) Consonant to Vowel 1. Within a one syllable word following vowel could influence mouth posture for consonant he, hat teach a moderate position for the /h/. 2. Between syllables of multisyllabic words (CVCV - mama, CV1CV2 mommy, C1V1C2V2 - bunny, etc) 3. Between a word that ends in a consonant and one that begins with a vowel take a man, pop a bubble. 4. When teaching // in the intervocalic position, it is sometimes easier to start with consonants that dont require movement from one tongue position to another. Instead start with bilabials (purr), or h (her). C) Vowel to Consonant 1. Within a one syllable word sometimes easier to transition to a consonant that is produced with a similar mouth posture as the preceding vowel than one that is radically different ees vs. ass or ack vs ick or in vs. an. 2. At the end of a syllable, phrase or sentence when the final consonant is a plosive the plosive is unreleased. Examples: Put it on the top. Feed the cat. Get me the jug. It is difficult to release them without adding a schwa which makes the final word top-ah or jug-ah. D) Consonant to Consonant a. When the same sound or its cognate are back to back between words He knows Sam the sound at the beginning of the new syllable or word takes precedence over the preceding sound

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March 4, 2011

3 b. When two sounds similar in place and manner are back to back between words horseshoe the sound at the beginning of the new syllable or word sometimes takes precedence over the preceding sound. c. When one sound influences the place of production of another sound to a new place of production birthday the /d/ is dentalized. d. American speakers in most regions substitute /d/ for /t/ when /t/ is between two vowels (Rodgers, J. 2002) either between words (get it, minute or) or within a word (butter, better). e. When two consonants back to back are produced in the same place and manner but vary in voicing or nasality within a word (jump, land) or between words (thumb popped, can do). f. When two consonants back to back are produced in different locations either between words (off to, kiss Ken) or with a word (soft, skate). g. When the first of two consonants back to back is an unreleased plosive either within a word (jumped, kicked) or between words (jump to, kick terrible) h. When the morphological endings s or ed are added to create plurals, etc, or past tense. Voicing follows voicing and air follows air. (yells, talks, and talked, yelled) i. When three consonants are back to back and are a mixture of voiced and unvoiced between words or within compound words (swans feed, swans do). The finals in swans is an unvoiced /s/ in the first example and voiced /z/ in the second. The initial sound at the beginning of the second word or syllable takes precedence.

VI. The goal of speech therapy is to teach children to talk like the adults in their environment (Bernthal, J. & Bankston, N., 1993) So, analyze the way we really talk the actual sounds in our words, phrases, etc., not the spelling of them or the spacing between them. Spacing is added so that our eyes can visually discriminate each word. It does not represent the way we speak. VII. Principles in Teaching Coarticulation A) Analyze test data and listen to the childs spontaneous speech to determine the need for coarticulation instruction. B) Use the coarticulation hierarchy below to determine level of difficulty. C) Adjust the speed to first teach accented coarticulation, then slower but natural coarticulation, and finally using coarticulation with a regular rate. D) With C to V or C to C contexts, start with one place of occurrence of that context type I put it, then practice two places of occurrence I put it on, and then practice three places of occurrence I put it on it. E) In addition to increasing the number of places of occurrence of coarticulation, use a variety of consonants and vowels for practice.

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March 4, 2011 VIII. Coarticulation Hierarchy of Difficulty A) V to V within a syllable - i (oy) B) C to V within a syllable - do C) V to C within a syllable - up D) V to V between words show it E) C to V between words - put it F) C to C in same place of production within a word- find G) C to C in different places of production within a word - talks H) C to C with 1 unreleased plosive within a word- walked Then same order of C to C productions between words can do, pack some, and walk to IX. Speech Pathology Behaviors That Hinder Coarticulation

A) Teaching children to say the long vowels in the articles: In Standard American English the articles are all produced using the schwa. B) Teaching children to add a schwa when saying the sounds of letters. Do not add the schwa on to consonants when teaching phonics or sounds in isolation, as cat becomes cuh at. Make the smallest vowel you can when you release a voiced plosive. C) Teaching children to release plosives when they are at the end of a word, phrase, or sentence. D) Teaching children to speak word by word instead of flowing from word to word. E) Teaching children to add sounds that are normally usurped as in Sam knows Sue. F) Teaching children to change tongue posture to produce adjacent sounds when the tongue posture should stay the same. Ex. Birthday References: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2007) Childhood Apraxia of Speech Position Statement; www.asha.org/policy. Bernthal, John E. & Bankson, Nicholas W. (1993), Articulation and Phonological Disorders, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Rodgers, Janet (2002) The Complete Voice & Speech Workout, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, New York, NY.

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