An objective and time-efficient method for determining severity of childhood speech delay

To address the need for an efficient and valid approach to determining the severity of a child's speech delay, this study compared 2 types of sampling procedures to derive a measure of percentage of consonants correct (PCC; L. D. Shriberg and J. Kwiatkowski, 1982). PCC scores of twenty-one 4- to 6-year-old children with speech delay derived from both an imitative sentence task and a conversational task were compared. Scores did not differ significantly and corresponded favorably with a reference criterion (S. M. Benner, 1992) for determining clinical equivalence. The imitative approach required considerably less time to complete. Thus, the sentence imitation procedure offers a valid and efficient alternative to conversational sampling. However, clinicians should consider individual child characteristics when choosing an imitative approach.