Currently, there is no gold standard for the treatment of speech sound disorders (SSDs) in the school setting. Further research is needed on what treatments will remediate SSDs efficiently and effectively given educational settings’ limitations. Paramount among those limitations is the protection of the time spent in academic instruction. Large caseloads and the use of low intensity, distributive practice service delivery can result in a student requiring many more hours in speech therapy services above the 17 hours that is reported by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS) as being necessary to remediate a single sound error. Research in the areas of intensity, therapy approach, and scheduling are limited and lack agreement on the most efficient and effective approach to remediating SSDs in the public education setting. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of using individual, short duration, speech therapy sessions for the remediation of the speech of children ages 5-12 with speech sound disorders.
