Kelly Vess

Grosse Pointe Public School System & Wayne State University · Speech Language Pathology

Aim: Twenty-two preschoolers with an educational eligibility of speech sound disorders were randomly assigned into two groups. Group A were assigned an /fɹ/ treatment target (n=9). Group B were assigned a / dʒɹ/ treatment target (n=12). Change over a fifteen week period was compared between the two intervention groups. Procedure: Single-word speec...

Aim: Twelve preschoolers with an educational eligibility of speech sound disorders were randomly assigned into two groups. Group A were assigned an /spl/ treatment target (n=6). Group B were assigned an /spɹ/ treatment target (n=6). Change over a 15-week period was compared between the two intervention groups. Procedure: Single-word speech testing...

This current study indicates that selection of the most complex consonant clusters in the English language, 3-element clusters, will result in greater gains in the total number of consonants accurately produced. Additionally, 3-element clusters correlated to greater gains in accurately producing both 2-element clusters and affricates. Clinical Impl...

This N=1 pilot study takes a closer look at the reliability of the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test-Preschool 2 (SPELT-P2) assessment in determining the presence or absence of a language disorder for 3-year-olds in comparison to the Preschool Language Scale-5 (PLS-5) Expressive Subtest and the Expressive Vocabulary Test-3 (EVT-3). R...

Can speech and language outcomes be impacted by the syntactical context in which they are presented? This A/B split design study compared the impact of complex treatment targets embedded in a complex sentence versus paragraph context. Results: Baseline and post-intervention data is presented based on Percent Consonant Correct (PCC), standardized si...

Abstract: Fifteen preschoolers participated in this N=1 study in which each preschooler's MLU-m was assessed at 25 and 50 consecutive, spontaneous utterances. Results: Research indicated that MLU-m was consistent at 25 and 50 consecutive utterances for preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Developmental Language Delay (DLD). There...

Findings indicated that children with ASD produced significantly more self-repetitions (M=27%) than children with speech and language impairments (M=3%). These group differences were statistically significant (p=.001) with a hedge's g effect size g of .27. Clinical Implications: This study supports previous findings of children with ASD presenting...

This (N=1) study consisted of 15 diverse preschoolers aged (38-60 mos, M=48) with the following educational eligibilities: Autism Spectrum Disorder (n=7) Speech and concurrent Language Impairment (n=2) Speech Sound Disorder Solely (n=6)

This study aims to determine whether elicitation of imitated versus spontaneously produced speech impacted testing performance for preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This study (N=12) indicated a moderate to large effect size (d=.78, p=.07) with spontaneous and delayed model productions containing substantially more errors than imitated pr...

This study of six verbal preschool students with ASD examined performance in identifying whether a phoneme is in the initial or final position of words. Twenty weekly literacy intervention groups were provided. These involved kinesthetic hand prompting across activities to identify beginning and ending sounds. Skill in identifying the /s/ phoneme a...

This study presents speech gains on single word standardized testing and within connected speech for three preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Two males (age 46 and 50 months) and one female (age 59 months) with severe speech impairment participated in five, 45-minute, 1:1 therapy sessions with a graduate student. Results: All three presch...

Twenty-seven preschoolers with speech sound disorders were divided based on having a diagnosis of concomitant Autism (n=9), language impairment (n=9), and speech impairment only (n=9) for group comparisons. Age matched groups with similar speech severity levels indicated substantial differences in accuracy of consonant cluster production based on p...

This study presents speech gains on single word standardized testing and within connected speech for three preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Two males (age 46 and 50 months) and one female (age 59 months) with severe speech impairment (all scoring at or below 1%ile on the Clinical Assessment of Articulation and Phonology-2 at intervention...

Abstract: Vocalizations, consonantal vocalizations, word approximations, and words spoken were recorded for four male prelinguistic preschoolers with ASD across forty 5-minute speech therapy activities using a PECS “I want X” sentence strip to request objects and actions. Half of the sessions (twenty) occurred within engaging seated activities and...

This study compared improvement in phonemic awareness skills of fifteen neurotypical developing preschoolers (aged 4-5 years) over a 6-month period. The impact of attending six 40-minute integrated peer literacy groups in serving as peer partners for seven preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder will be analyzed. This current study will compar...

Twenty-seven 3-4 year old preschoolers with articulation impairment received five 45-minute speech sessions targeting /r/ consonant blends in the prevocalic consonant cluster position (e.g., “scrape”). Standardized articulation pretesting and post testing was analyzed to determine if gains were achieved with /r/ in both the prevocalic and postvocal...

Thirty preschoolers, aged 3-5 years, with an educational diagnosis of articulation impairment, participated in five, once weekly, 45-minute individual speech intervention sessions administered by a supervised second year graduate speech-language pathology student. Standardized testing and parent report indicated substantial gains over a 7 week peri...

Abstract: Thirty-one preschoolers, aged 3-5 years, with an education diagnosis of articulation impairment, participated in five, once weekly, 45-minute individual speech intervention sessions administered by a second year graduate speech-language pathology student with direct supervision by a certified supervising speech-language pathologist. Stand...