The Effects of Exercise on Attention During Articulation Therapy Katelynn Rickard Karen Noll, CCC-SLP Valdosta State University

Disclosure Statement No authors had any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest associated with the content of this presentation

Introduction Articulation Articulation “refers to the totality of motor movements involved in production of the actual sounds that comprise speech” (Bauman-Waengler, 2015). Cerebellum “contributes to the maintenance of equilibrium and coordination of skilled motor activity” (Bhatnagar, 2002). Articulation disorders may include one or more of the following; omission/deletion, substitution, addition, distortion, whole-word/syllable-level errors, and prosody errors. Hindrances to articulation treatment may include attendance, motivation, and attention.

Introduction Attention Types of Attention Sustained Attention Selective Attention Alternating Attention Divided Attention According to Schmahmann, “There is increasing recognition that the cerebellum contributes to cognitive processing” (2005).

Introduction Exercise Exercise has a positive effect on an individual’s brainpower; increasing the blood flow to the brain increases the brain function. Study was conducted by Medina et al., to measure the impact of exercise on sustained attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (2010). Two groups were included in this study. The control group with dosage of methylphenidate (MTP) and the experimental group with no dosage of MTP. Both groups followed the same exercise program. The conclusion of this study found exercise, without the use of MTP, had the same effect on the young males attention span with the use of MTP.

Research Question and Hypothesis Would exercise before articulation therapy increase attention during treatment? It is hypothesized that exercise before articulation will increase the participant’s attention during the treatment session.

Methods Participant: 6 year-old male with a diagnosis of an articulation disorder consistent with sound distortions. Three minute physical warm-up consisting of two, thirty second rounds of jogging in place, jumping jacks, and flutter kicks. Three sessions: One not including warm-up, two including warm-up Sessions were video recorded and rated by three Communication Sciences and Disorders professors using the ADHD Rating Scale IV-School Version from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

Measures Three professors used the ADHD Rating Scale IV-School Version from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, to rate the attention of the participant. The attention of the participant is rated on a scale of zero to three, with zero being never or rarely showing characteristics of losing attention and three being very often showing characteristics of losing attention.

Results

Results The average rating of characteristics for losing attention without a warm-up was .389. The average rating of characteristics for losing attention with the two sessions beginning with a warm-up was . 257. The client showed an average decrease of .132 on the ADHD Rating Scale IV-School Version from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

Discussion The results revealed that the client did show a decrease in characteristics of losing attention when beginning the session with a warm-up. From the results in this study clinicians that have clients whom have a hard time focusing during articulation therapy can try using physical activity before beginning a session to show an increase on attention.

Limitations Lack of participants Physical health issues not allowing certain clients to participate in exercise Keeping clients engaged in exercise

Recommendations Further research is vital in order to solidify the results over multiple participants and multiple therapy sessions. It is also recommended to further research the effects of exercise on a longer period of time.

References Bauman-Waengler, J. A. (2015). Articulation and phonology in speech sound disorders: A clinical focus (5th ed.). Pearson. Bhatnagar, S. C. (2002). Neuroscience for the study of communicative disorders (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Medina, J. A., Netto, T. L., Muszkat, M., Medina, A. C., Botter, D., Orbetelli, R., Miranda, M. C. (2010). Exercise impact on sustained attention of ADHD children, methylphenidate effects. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 2(1), 49-58. doi:10.1007/s12402-009-0018-y Schmahmann, J. D. (2005). Cognition, emotion and the cerebellum. Brain, 129(2), 290-292. doi:10.1093/brain/awh729