does phonological awareness therapy work in the clinic?
GROUND: Recent research has shown that phonological awareness therapy can improve speech production in children with expressive phonological disorders. This approach may be appealing to clinicians as the therapy may also benefit the children’s general phonological abilities and lead to gains in their literacy skills. AIMS: To examine the effectiveness of phonological awareness therapy under conditions more similar to those prevailing in many speech and language therapy clinics. Children were treated in small groups and less intensive therapy was offered than in previous studies. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twenty children were randomly assigned to treated and untreated groups. A pre-/post-test design was used to monitor their progress in phonological awareness, literacy and speech production. Children were treated in groups of three. They received 12 hours of therapy. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Comparisons of the groups showed that the treated group made significantly greater gains in phonological