Cycles Approach for Treating Severe Phonological Disorders in Children

What is the cycles approach?

A phonological intervention for highly unintelligible children with severe to profound phonological impairments, promoting generalization and targeting multiple phonological patterns.

What is a cycle in the context of phonological therapy?

A 10-15 week block of therapy targeting approximately 4 different phonological patterns, with each phoneme trained for at least 60 minutes.

How many cycles of phonological remediation are typically required for intelligibility?

Usually 3-6 cycles, totaling 30-40 hours of instruction.

What criteria are used to choose target phonological patterns?

Patterns occurring more than 40% of the time in a child's speech assessment are considered, with a focus on stimulable sounds.

What are primary targets in the first cycle of treatment?

Patterns that have the most impact on intelligibility, including syllableness, initial and final consonant deletion, fronting/velars, backing/alveolars, cluster reduction, and gliding/liquids.

What are secondary targets in the cycles approach?

Patterns targeted after primary targets are mastered, including palatal glides, sibilants, singleton fricatives, and all other targets.

What types of words should be selected for practice in the cycles approach?

Monosyllabic words that represent actual objects and are appropriate to the child's vocabulary.

What is the first step in using cycles training?

Identify the phonological patterns within the primary targets that the child is exhibiting.

How long should each phoneme in a pattern be targeted during a cycle?

Each phoneme should be targeted for 60 minutes, which can be divided into multiple sessions.

What is auditory bombardment in cycles training?

A 2-minute session where the child listens to 12-20 words demonstrating the target sound, possibly contrasting with the child's errors.

What is the purpose of stimulability probing?

To select the target phoneme for the next session based on the child's ability to produce the sound.

What is the recommended home program for caregivers?

Caregivers should read the word list once per day and have the child name picture cards once per day.

What modifications do clinicians often make to the cycles approach?

Clinicians may adjust the use of auditory bombardment and other elements based on their clinical judgment.

How does the cycles approach differ from traditional phonological treatment?

It emphasizes moving on to new targets regardless of mastery, focusing on emergence rather than complete mastery.