Final consonant generalization in hearing impaired children's articulation

Within a multiple baseline across behaviors design, four hearing impaired children who initially omitted final consonants in words were taught to produce final |k| and |v| in a contrast training procedure. Generalization of the two sounds and their cognates, the |g| and |f|, was tested to items consisting of spontaneously produced single words (naming pictures) and the same words in sentences read by the children. Results showed that the children generalized both final target sounds to a high degree in both contexts. Some generalization also occurred to the cognates which had never been trained. Although individual variability was observed, data showed that the |v| generalized to a greater number of items than the |k|, and possibly, required less training. Generalization to the |f| items was also better than to the |g| items. Response patterns suggested that final consonant production had been thoroughly acquired since variables that could have disrupted or interfered with generalization had no effect on the children's performance.