Accent reduction is a fun area to treat. Generally the patients do not present with any other diagnoses which impact treatment so therapy is very effective. Accents are characterized by substitutions or alternations of vowel and/or consonant sounds. Most accents occur because the speakers native language does not include the Standard American English (SAE) sound. They may have the letter in their alphabet but they produce it differently.
1. The first step to accomplishing accent reduction is to do an articulation assessment. It is absolutely necessary to do an assessment that includes vowel sounds. Be sure to use diacritics so that you can identify and remediate all differences between SAE and the speakers productions.
2. I generally like to record some of the differences that the patient presents with. This allows them to hear the differences.
3. Next, check for stimuability. See which new sounds they can most easily make.
4. Begin treatment. Train for position of articulators, voicing, nasality, etc. As they master (80% acc) a sound add a new sound to target.
5. As they are reaching mastery of their target sounds record them again and help them ID differences between their first recording and later recordings. Help them ID areas of further concern.
I like to practice target phonemes in the most natural contexts possible. I have them read, we play games with their speech sounds, we have conversations, we talk on the telephone, etc.
*Accent reduction is not a necessary treatment. Most insurance will not pay for it. It is optional; however, many professionals like to have it done so that they sound more educated.
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