Tongue contour for /s/ and /∫/ in children with speech sound disorder

To describe the tongue shape for /s/ and /∫/ sounds in three different groups of children with and without speech sound disorder.

The six participants were divided into three groups: Group 1--two typically developing children, Group 2--two children with speech sound disorder presenting any other phonological processes but not the ones involving the production of the /∫/ and Group 3--two children with speech sound disorder presenting any phonological processes associated to the presence of the phonological process of palatal fronting (these two children produced /∫/ as /s/) aged between 5 and 8 years old, all speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The data were the words /'∫avi/ (key) and /'sapu/ (frog). Tongue contour was individually traced for the five productions of each target word.

The analysis of the tongue contour pointed to evidences that both /s/ and /∫/ were produced using distinct tongue contours for G1 and G2. The production of these two groups was more stable than G3. The tongue contour for /s/ and /∫/ from the children in G3 was similar, indicating that their production was undifferentiated.

The use of the ultrasound applied to the speech analysis was effective to confirm the perceptual analysis of the sound made ​​by the speech-language pathologist.