Navajo Children With and Without Speech Sound Disorders

This study examined whether the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-Third Edition (GFTA-3) and the Khan-Lewis Phonological Analysis-Third Edition (KLPA-3) accurately classify Navajo children with typically developing (TD) speech or with speech sound disorder (SSD).

Twenty-four Navajo children between the ages of 5;00 and 7;11 were classified as either having an SSD (n = 12) or TD (n = 12) based on a four-criterion framework: (a) a parent questionnaire addressing the child's speech development, (b) a teacher questionnaire addressing the student's speech sound development, (c) elicitation of a generated story speech sample, and (d) documentation of whether or not the child receives school-based speech services as outlined in their Individualized Education Plan. Participants completed the GFTA-3, a standardized speech assessment that targets phonemes within a picture-naming task. The KLPA-3, which analyzes the use of typical phonological process(es), was then later analyzed using recordings of the GFTA-3.

The GFTA-3 and the KLPA-3 each identified Navajo children with SSD at 100% accuracy. However, the GFTA-3 and the KLPA-3 classified TD Navajo children as having SSD 83% of the time while only accurately classifying TD Navajo children as TD with 17% accuracy. Based on the ROC, a recommended cutoff score of the GFTA-3 and KLPA-3 to distinguish Navajo children with and without SSD was not established; rather, the four-criterion classification system is preferred.

The GFTA-3 and the KLPA-3 standard scores do not accurately classify Navajo children with and without SSDs.