Phonological development in 4-6-year-old moderately hearing impaired children

The acquisition of clear phonological rules is of utmost importance for a child when he/she is learning to decode and convey meanings using spoken language. Fifteen Finnish-speaking children, five normally hearing (NH) 3-year-olds and 10 moderately hearing impaired (HId) 4-6-year-olds were studied here. Speech samples consisting of 62 words were collected from each child during a picture naming task. Frequent phonetic (articulation) errors together with normal (but delayed) and deviant phonological processes of HId children were found in this study. The frequency and quality of the processes seemed to be related more to the grade of HI than, for example, the age of the child. Implications for speech therapy are briefly discussed.