The American Community Survey (United States Census Bureau, 2017) revealed that 21.3% of individuals living in the United States speak a language other than English at home, being Spanish as the second most spoken language. Phonological disorders in children affect approximately 10% of the pediatric population; 80% of these children are diagnosed as severely delayed (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders [NIDCD], 1994). The early clinical treatment of phonological repertoire and awareness of children avoid potential difficulties in other areas of development areas such as reading, writing, spelling, and mathematical abilities (Gierut, 1998). This investigation evaluated whether the use of minimal pairs or maximal pairs would bring greater improvement to the production of targeted phonemes in children aged 3:0 to 6:11 years.
An A1B A2C/ A1C A2B single-subject design was selected for this investigation and included three participants. All participants received a total of twelve 30-minute-sessions following the baseline phase (not including the second A phase): six sessions were dedicated to the minimal pairs and six sessions to the maximal pairs approachs. Visual analysis of the data revealed that the maximal pairs approach demonstrated a larger increase in the accuracy of targeted phonemes’ production compared to minimal pairs intervention.
Keywords: maximal pairs, minimal pairs, phonological disorders, speech sound disorders.