The potential contribution of communication breakdown and repair in phonological intervention

This paper explores the potential contribution of communication breakdown and repair sequences in phonological intervention. The paper is divided into two parts. In part one, we examine the inclusion of communication breakdown and repair sequences across three current approaches to phonological intervention. The review of this literature highlights a need for researchers to better document the teaching dialogue used in therapy. In part two of this paper, we consider how a unique type of clarification request containing an incorrect production could be applied in an intervention context. Reasons why such a unique counterintuitive clarification request might help children's speech are considered. The need to better understand the effect of different types of clarification requests on children's speech production skills during phonological intervention is discussed.