RecruitingNot ApplicableNCT07041723

BiOfeedback, Online for Sibilant Treatment

Online Assessment and Enhancement of Auditory Perception for Speech Sound Errors: BiOfeedback, Online for Sibilant Treatment

Sponsor

Montclair State University

Enrollment

6 participants

Start Date

Jul 30, 2025

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Conditions

Speech Sound Disorder

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of sibilant biofeedback treatment delivered via telepractice in six children ages 8:0-17;11 who present with distortions of /s/. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Primary hypothesis: Biofeedback treatment for sibilants delivered via telepractice will produce positive gains compared to a no-treatment baseline phase. * Secondary hypothesis: Participants will experience positive changes in social-emotional well-being after receiving biofeedback treatment for sibilants as reported by the participants and their guardians. Following the initial evaluation, participants will be randomly assigned to transition from baseline to treatment at one of seven possible points, ranging from 4-10 baseline sessions in which /s/ production will be probed but not treated. All participants will then receive 20, 1-hour biofeedback treatment sessions over 10 weeks with a certified Speech-Language Pathologist via teletherapy, followed by three maintenance sessions.

Eligibility

Min Age: 8 YearsMax Age: 17 Years

Plain Language Summary

Simplified for easier understanding

This clinical trial evaluates whether biofeedback-assisted speech therapy delivered via video call can help children aged 8–17 who have persistent difficulty pronouncing the 's' sound correctly. Using real-time visual feedback through specialized software, a certified speech-language pathologist guides participants through 20 one-hour treatment sessions over 10 weeks, followed by three maintenance sessions. Children must have less than 30% accuracy on 's' sounds, no significant hearing loss, and access to a laptop and quiet space for sessions. Participation involves an initial evaluation, a baseline monitoring phase, all treatment sessions over video call, and follow-up assessments of speech and social-emotional well-being. This summary was prepared to help patients understand the study in plain language.

This summary was AI-generated to explain the trial in plain language. It is not medical advice. Always discuss eligibility with your doctor before enrolling in a clinical trial.

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Interventions

BEHAVIORALVisual-acoustic biofeedback for Sibilants

Participants will view a real-time FFT spectrum and will be cued to match a visual target for /s/ where the spectral energy is concentrated to the right side of the display, primarily in the 5000-10,000 Hz region of the spectrum. Practice will occur in blocks of 10 consecutive trials on the same item (e.g., 10 /sa/), after which a new item will be addressed (e.g., 10 /se/). Within each block, the clinician will provide qualitative (knowledge of performance) feedback as prompted by the research team's custom open-source software, Challenge Point Program (CPP). The CPP software prompts clinician actions such as delivery of knowledge of performance (KP) feedback. Following each block of ten trials, the software automatically tallies the scores entered by the clinician and uses the summed scores to make adaptive changes in practice difficulty.