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Faster gains in children’s speech therapy with biofeedback

Girl holding wooden letter R

Drs. Tara McAllister and Jennifer Hill and colleagues published an article revealing findings from a large-scale study of 108 children with residual speech sound disorder (difficulty with the "r" sound). The study, published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, tested a technology-enhanced method called biofeedback against traditional motor-based treatment. Dr. McAllister and her team found that children receiving biofeedback—which provides a real-time visual display of the tongue's movement—improved their pronunciation 2.4 times faster than those in the traditional group during the initial stages of therapy. This finding provides the first "gold-standard" evidence that biofeedback is a significantly more efficient and less frustrating intervention, which can help speech pathologists better manage their caseloads.

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Read NYU’s news story on these research findings. 

Related past highlight

Tara McAllister Awarded $3 Million Grant

Dr. McAllister was awarded a $3 million grant to continue research to evaluate the effectiveness of in-person versus telepractice delivery of biofeedback intervention for speech sound disorder.

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