This advice-column-style blog for SLPs was authored by Pam Marshalla from 2006 to 2015, the archives of which can be explored here. Use the extensive keywords list found in the right-hand column (on mobile: at the bottom of the page) to browse specific topics, or use the search feature to locate specific words or phrases throughout the entire blog.
Stimulability and /r/ Therapy
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Do you think that a 21-year-old client who is not stimulable for /r/ can learn it?
A client who is not stimulable for /r/ is just as likely to learn it in therapy as one who is not. The therapy is designed to teach it to him.
The idea of “stimulability” comes from the phonology literature. When a client has multiple misarticulations we work on the next phoneme for which the client seems stimulable.
The same idea does not necessarily apply to articulation therapy. Articulation therapy is designed to teach the client phonemes for which he is not stimulable. That is the purpose of the therapy.