Phonological processing and reading in children with speech sound disorders

Area of Science:

• Child language and literacy development.
• Speech and hearing sciences.
• Developmental psychology.

Background:

• Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) often face challenges in literacy acquisition.
• Phonological processing skills are crucial for early reading development.
• Understanding the trajectory of reading skills in children with SSD is essential for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the link between early phonological processing abilities and later reading outcomes in children with SSD.
• To compare reading performance in first grade between children with SSD and varying levels of phonological skills and typically developing peers.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study assessing 17 children with SSD and poor phonological processing (SSD-low PP), 16 with SSD and good phonological processing (SSD-high PP), and 35 typically developing children.
• Evaluated phonological processing, speech production, language skills, and phonological awareness in prekindergarten and first grade.
• Assessed reading skills, including nonword and sight word reading, using the Test of Word Reading Efficiency in first grade.

Main Results:

• Children in the SSD-low PP group showed significantly lower nonword decoding scores in first grade compared to SSD-high PP and typical groups.
• Both SSD groups exhibited similar receptive language skills and articulation deficits.
• No significant differences were found in sight word reading performance across the groups.

Conclusions:

• Persistent phonological processing weaknesses were observed in the SSD-low PP subgroup over a two-year period.
• Early phonological processing deficits predict challenges in decoding nonwords for children with SSD.
• While nonword decoding is affected, sight word reading may be less impacted in children with SSD.