The integrity of underlying phonological representations of Greek-speaking children with speech sound disorders

Underlying representations are important for the development of spoken and written language. English-speaking children with speech sound disorders (SSD) have been reported to show significant difficulty with tasks tapping phonological representations. The present study describes the development of a task for the assessment of phonological representations in Greek-speaking children. The purpose of the study is twofold: to investigate the development of phonological representation in typically developing (TD) Greek-speaking children and to explore the possibility that children with SSD may have insufficiently defined phonological representations. Greek-speaking preschool aged children (4;0-5;5 years) with SSD receiving intervention (N = 20) were compared to their typically developing peers (N = 80) on their ability to complete a task of real-word auditory discrimination with picture choice. Performance differences were assessed across segmental properties and variation in word structure.TD children aged 4;0-4;5 scored lower than older TD children. A marginally significant difference in performance was found between children with SSD and TD controls. Quantitative analysis of mistakes indicated that children with SSD and TD children aged 4;0-4;5 opt for the phonological distractor. Stimuli tapping on the specification of underlying representations at a segmental level were more taxing compared to stimuli tapping on the integrity of stored word structures.Task materials and procedures used in the present study provide preliminary normative data and may be used for the assessment of Greek-speaking children with SSD. Children with SSD are at risk of developing underspecified phonological representations and therefore should receive assessment of underlying representations to guide intervention.