Word Retrieval Ability on Phonemic Fluency in Typically Developing Children

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Verbal fluency tasks assess word retrieval, but phonemic fluency in children is understudied.
• Language-specific phonemic characteristics necessitate understanding developmental trends.
• Phonemic fluency's clinical utility in childhood disorders requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the developmental trajectory of phonemic fluency in typically developing Malayalam-speaking children.
• To analyze performance based on word productivity and clustering-switching measures.
• To investigate the influence of age, gender, and task type on phonemic fluency outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study design was employed.
• 1,015 typically developing Malayalam-speaking children aged 5-15 years participated.
• Two phonemic fluency tasks were administered to assess verbal fluency.

Main Results:

• Age demonstrated a positive correlation with phonemic fluency performance.
• No statistically significant gender differences were observed.
• Children utilized both task-discrepant and task-consistent organizational strategies, specific to the Malayalam language.

Conclusions:

• Phonemic fluency performance in children is significantly influenced by age.
• Language-specific strategies are employed in phonemic fluency tasks.
• Further cross-linguistic research is crucial for refining phonemic fluency tasks for clinical use in childhood disorders.