Integrating literacy targets into speech sound therapy for children with speech sound disorders: A case study.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Journal / Book Title

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups

Abstract

Purpose: Due to an increased risk for developing reading and writing difficul-ties, research literature recommends integrating literacy targets into speechsound therapy for children with speech sound disorders. Translating guidancefrom research into daily practice warrants looking closely at applying evidence-based practices from more controlled environments into authentic settings be-cause most speech-language pathologists practice in these real-world settings.This clinical focus article describes how embedding phonics and phonemicawareness activities into speech sound therapy in a real-world setting influencedspeech sound production, letter naming, grapheme–phoneme correspondence,and phonemic segmentation in a preschool client with a speech sound disorder.

Method: A female aged 4;5 (years;months) with a speech sound disorder wasseen for 10 individual therapy sessions in a university speech clinic collaboratively with a graduate student clinician. The parent observed all sessions and wasgiven specific feedback on how to implement strategies at home that were intro-duced in therapy. Data were collected for speech sound production, letter naming, grapheme–phoneme correspondence, and phonemic segmentation prior totherapy at the beginning, at midpoint, and at the end of the therapy sessions.

Results: The client’s speech sound errors decreased, phonemic repertoire expanded, phonological processes such as phoneme collapse decreased, and bothletter naming and grapheme–phoneme correspondence increased; however, analyses indicated that the differences were not statistically significant. Phonemic segmentation remained unchanged.

Conclusions: It is feasible to apply recommendations to integrate phonics andphonemic awareness activities into speech sound therapy. However, a clearunderstanding of literacy development is an important consideration whenselecting targets. Results are discussed in the context of balancing clinical andstatistical significance, and therapeutic decision making may benefit from inte-grating both.

DOI

10.1044/2025_PERSP-25-00012

Published Citation

Becker, R., & Ghanim, I. (2026). Integrating literacy targets into speech sound therapy for children with speech sound disorders: A case study. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 51(1). https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_PERSP-25-00012

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