Auditory-Perceptual Training Via Telepractice

Following the initial evaluation to determine eligibility, participants will be enrolled in a baseline phase in which perception and production abilities will be probed but not treated. In a multiple-baseline across-subjects design with randomization, the 10 participants will be randomly assigned to transition from the baseline to the treatment condition at one of 7 possible points, ranging from 3 to 9 baseline sessions. After baseline sessions, perceptual training will be delivered in twelve 30-minute sessions occurring 3 times per week for 4 weeks. The training is fully computerized and can be self-administered, but a study clinician will attend one session per participant per week to ensure attention to study tasks. Each session will feature three listening tasks of approximately equal duration. Following perceptual training, participants will receive 4 60-minute sessions of production training completed over two weeks.

Inclusion criteria

• Must be between 9;0 and 15;11 years of age at the time of enrollment.
• Must speak English as the dominant language (i.e., must have begun learning English by age 2, per parent report).
• Must speak a rhotic dialect of English.
• Must pass a pure-tone hearing screening at 20dB HL
• Must pass a brief examination of oral structure and function.
• Must exhibit less than 30% accuracy, based on consensus across 2 trained listeners, on a probe list eliciting rhotics in various phonetic contexts at the word level.
• Must exhibit no more than 3 sounds other than /r/ in error on the GFTA-3

Exclusion criteria

• Must not receive a T score more than 1.3 SD below the mean on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence-2 (WASI-2) Matrix Reasoning
• Must not receive a scaled score of 7 or higher on the Recalling Sentences and Formulated Sentences subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-5 (CELF-5).
• Must not have an existing diagnosis of developmental disability or major neurobehavioral syndrome such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, or Autism Spectrum Disorder