For speech-language pathologists

How often should SLPs give feedback during speech practice?

Published 21 October 2026 · Updated 21 October 2026

The short answer

Principles of motor learning suggest feedback should change as a skill develops: frequent, detailed feedback while establishing a sound, then less frequent feedback to support retention and generalization. The evidence in children is small and mixed, so treat reduced feedback as something to try once a sound is established, and watch each child’s response.

Two kinds of feedback

Feedback types in speech motor learning
Type	What it tells the child
Knowledge of results (KR)	Whether the attempt was correct or incorrect.
Knowledge of performance (KP)	Whether and how the attempt was correct or incorrect: detail about the movement just made.

Definitions as used by McKechnie et al. (2020) and Preston et al. (2020).

What the evidence says

A 2008 review argued that principles from non-speech motor learning hold promise for motor speech disorders, but that few studies had tested them in speech (Maas et al., 2008).
In 12 children with residual /ɹ/ errors, each received 8 hours of high-frequency (89% of trials) and 8 hours of low-frequency (44%) ultrasound visual feedback in counterbalanced order. At group level, high-then-low produced larger gains than low-then-high; the authors caution the sample is small (Preston et al., 2018).
In 4 children with childhood apraxia of speech, two did better with low-frequency feedback, one showed a small advantage for high-frequency feedback, and one didn’t clearly improve (Maas et al., 2012).
In 14 children with childhood apraxia of speech receiving tablet-based practice, both KR and KP groups improved at 4 months; only the KP group changed significantly immediately after treatment, and that difference was gone by 1 month (McKechnie et al., 2020).

Note that Preston et al. (2018) studied the frequency of ultrasound visual feedback, not verbal feedback.

Practical implications

While establishing a sound, frequent, detailed (KP) feedback is the usual recommendation; a 2020 /r/ tutorial describes reducing frequency from 90–100% of trials to around 40–50% as skills develop (Preston et al., 2020).
Once a sound is established, shift toward less frequent feedback and the child’s own judgment of accuracy.
Individualize: in the small child studies, responses to feedback schedules varied from child to child.

Questions SLPs ask

Should I stop giving feedback on every trial?

Possibly, once the sound is established. Reduced-frequency feedback may help some children with retention, but the child evidence is small and mixed, so monitor each child’s progress.

Does this apply to articulation and apraxia alike?

The studies here include residual /ɹ/ errors and childhood apraxia of speech. Principles are often applied across both, but evidence specific to each is limited.

What about tools that give feedback automatically?

The same questions apply: what kind of feedback, how often, and whether you can adjust it. See automated speech scoring for SLPs.