The relationship between discrimination and articulation training in children with misarticulations

In the context of a training study, the functional relationship between discrimination and production was investigated. Four subjects were selected for study. For two subjects, Condition I consisted of production training followed by a discrimination probe and Condition II consisted of discrimination training followed by a production probe. For the other two subjects, the conditions were reversed. In production training, the subjects were trained to correctly articulate three consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in response to nonsense pictures. In discrimination training the subjects were trained to find nonsense pictures in response to three CV syllables. Probe measures were administered to determine if changes occurred in one modality after training the other modality. Results indicated that production training was effective in changing both articulation and discrimination; however, discrimination training was effective in changing only discrimination.