Atypical Phonological Errors: A Guide for Speech-Language Pathologists

The purpose of this tutorial was to describe why identifying error type is important to clinical practice and to help clinicians identify typical and atypical phonological errors in English-speaking children.

In this tutorial, we define atypical phonological errors and describe assessment guidelines for identifying atypical phonological errors. We then review research on clinical considerations for assessment and intervention when a child produces atypical phonological errors. Next, we consider implications for assessing children who speak languages other than English. We then present a case study demonstrating clinical decision making for a child who produces atypical phonological errors.

Atypical phonological errors are more likely to be associated with co-occurring phonological processing difficulties than typical phonological errors. Identifying children who produce atypical errors will guide clinical decision making.