Examining Outcomes of a Parent Education Approach to Speech Therapy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how parental competence and parental expectations are associated with changes in children's speech scores after the completion of a parent education program targeting specific speech problems of the participating children. The researcher also examined how parental satisfaction with the chosen parent education program was related to changes in children's speech scores. Participants were 27 parent-child dyads who participated in the Speech Therapy Group at the Tulsa City-County Health Department during the Fall of 2004 and Winter of 2005. Each parent completed a demographic questionnaire, the Parental Sense of Competence Scale, the Knowledge Inventory of Development and Behavior: Infancy to School-age, and the Program Satisfaction Questionnaire as well as a release for their child's scores on the Goldman-Fristoe II Test of Articulation. A correlational design was utilized to examine the relation between parental competence, parental expectations, and the change in children's speech scores while controlling for parents' program satisfaction. Analysis showed a statistically significant association between levels of parental competence and change in children's speech scores. In other words, as levels of parental competence increased, their children experienced greater gains in speech development. The other analysis did not have a strong correlation; however, this association approached statistical significance. The results suggested that as levels of appropriate parental expectations increase, children's gains in speech development also increase.