The application of electropalatography (EPG) to the remediation of speech disorders in school-aged children and young adults.

Abstract

Electropalatography (EPG) is one of a number of computer-based biofeedback techniques being applied increasingly and apparently successfully to the treatment of speech pathologies. This paper briefly examines the function of such biofeedback systems within the remediation process and looks in particular at the features of the EPG system which render it a useful therapeutic tool. Details are summarised of a project initiated to evaluate the use of EPG in the management of a large group of speech-disordered children and young adults. Successful applications of the technique are presented by examining the different types of motor speech skill which subjects acquired during intervention. These are summarised as the establishment of completely new articulatory patterns, the inhibition of abnormal lingual patterns, and the modification of temporal or spatial aspects of one or several existing patterns. Possible reasons for the success of EPG as a therapeutic technique, and issues concerning subject selection, are discussed.