• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.99-112
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• 2002

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of self-monitoring on spontaneously initiating speech behavior of the hearing-impaired preschoolers. Three hearing-impaired preschoolers were selected from a special school for the deaf. They showed some vocalizations and words under intensive instruction settings, but never spontaneously spoke as a means of communication. Multiple probe design was applied in this study. During the self-monitoring intervention, each child was trained to assess whether his own initiating speech behavior was occurred or not, and then record his own behavior's occurrence on the self-recording sheets and self-graphing sheets. The vibration of handphone was used as a tactile cue for self-monitoring. The results of the present study were as follows: (1) self-monitoring significantly increased the percentage of occurrence of spontaneously initiating speech behaviors. (2) Increased level of spontaneously initiating speech behavior were generalized into another natural instruction (cognitive) settings. (3) Increased level of spontaneously initiating speech behavior were maintained after four weeks from the termination of the intervention.