# Content validation of the Adapted Cycles Intervention Program (PROCICLOS-A) for children with Speech Sound Disorder – Activities

## TL;DR

This study describes and validates a speech therapy program for children with speech sound disorders, using expert evaluations to assess the activities.

## Contribution

The paper introduces and validates a new intervention program (PROCICLOS-A) with structured activities for children with speech sound disorders.

## Key findings

- The PROCICLOS-A program includes 12 sessions targeting specific phonological processes and sounds.
- Expert judges showed moderate agreement (AC1 = 0.7125) on the activities and strategies used in the program.
- Materials developed for the program demonstrated a good level of agreement among experts.

## Abstract

This document aims to describe and validate the activities of the Adapted Cycles Intervention Program (PROCICLOS-A) for children with speech sound disorders.

The study employs a prospective, cross-sectional design focusing on quantitative analysis. PROCICLOS-A consists of 12 sessions, with a specific phonological process selected as the target for every six sessions. In total, two phonological processes and two target sounds are chosen for each cycle, resulting in four target sounds for the intervention. Each of the 12 sessions includes six types of activities: auditory bombardment, conducted at the beginning and end of each session, training in the production of the target sound, focusing on the articulation zone, mode, and voicing, auditory recognition of the target sound and auditory discrimination using minimal pairs, activities with minimal pairs to aid in understanding the phonological rule, training with words containing the target sound in initial, medial, and final positions, and phonological awareness activities. Specific materials were developed to implement each of these strategies. A total of twenty expert judges (EJs) participated in evaluating the activities, assessing all five activities along with their 14 respective strategies. To analyze the level of agreement among the judges, we utilized an alternate coefficient known as AC1, proposed by Gwet (2014). This analysis focused on the judges' responses related to the activities.

The agreement among the ten EJs for the activities was measured at 0.7125, indicating a moderate level of agreement.

The activities utilized in PROCICLOS-A for children with speech disorders demonstrated a good level of agreement for all the materials produced.

Descrever e validar as atividades do Programa de Intervenção do Ciclos Adaptado (PROCICLOS-A) para crianças com transtorno dos sons da fala tipo fonológico idiopático.

Estudo prospectivo, transversal, de análise quantitativa. O PROCICLOS-A conta com 12 sessões, em que a cada seis sessões um processo fonológico é alvo da intervenção, sendo dois processos fonológicos e para cada um deles dois sons alvos são trabalhados, totalizando quatro sons alvos. Cada uma das 12 sessões conta com seis tipos de atividades: bombardeamento auditivo (no início e final da sessão); treino do ponto, modo articulatório e vozeamento do som alvo; reconhecimento auditivo do som alvo e discriminação auditiva com pares mínimos; atividades com pares mínimos para compreensão da regra; treino em palavras com o som alvo em posição inicial, medial e final; e atividades de consciência fonológica. Materiais específicos foram criados para executar cada estratégia. Participaram do estudo vinte juízes especialistas (JE), que fizeram o julgamento de todas as cinco atividades e suas 14 estratégias respectivas. Para as análises de concordância entre os juízes quanto as respostas referentes às atividades, foi aplicado um coeficiente alternativo, denominado AC1, proposto por Gwet (2014).

A concordância entre os JE para as atividades foi de 0,7125, considerado um valor de concordância moderado.

As atividades do PROCICLOS-A para crianças com transtorno dos sons da fala apresentaram índice bom de concordância para todo o material produzido.