Oral form discrimination before and after speech therapy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the oral perception abilities of children with articulation problems before and after speech therapy.Stereognosis may be defined as the ability to recognize the form of objects through the sense of touch. "In clinical settings, stereognosis is tested by placing common objects such as keys, pens, and coins in the subject's hand and having him discriminate between them."l Oral stereognosis involves identification of forms by manual exploration in the mouth. The sensory perception of the articulators is important because of the role that oral touch plays in articulation remediation.2The definition of speech may vary according to the purpose of the definition. At times the linguistic features are present in the definition. In other definitions the physical characteristics are more meaningful. Since the speech therapist is more interested in the correction and prevention of faulty articulation, he is more interested in the processes that produce speech.In the past much thought has been given to the auditory feedback process as a major element of the speech mechanism.