[Analysis of characteristics of consonant distortion in children with functional articulation disorders]

Objective:To investigate the characteristics of consonant distortion in children aged 4-15 years with functional articulation disorders（FAD）, in order to provide scientific basis for clinical intervention. Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 2 905 children with articulation disorders who were treated at Yunnan Children's Hospital between 2022 and 2024. Consonant errors were analyzed across three dimensions: place of articulation, vowel environment, and manner of articulation. Results:Among the 2 905 children, 234 cases（8.06%） exhibited consonant distortion with 724 errors in total. By place of articulation, distortion frequencies ranked as follows: Alveolar consonants（217/29.97%）>Retroflex consonants（215/29.70%）>Dental consonants（134/18.51%）>Velar consonants（83/11.46%）>Palatal consonants（75/10.36%）. No distortions of labiodental or bilabial consonants were identified under this sample set and evaluation criteria. The error frequency distribution across the five places of articulation showed a statistically significant difference（χ²=130.86, P<0.001）. By vowel environment, the highest occurrence of distortion happened when consonants were combined with /i/ as the following vowel（299/41.30%）, secondly by /a/, /o/, and /e/（240/33.15%）, and lastly with /u/（185/25.55%）. Differences in error frequency were statistically significant（χ²=26.94, P<0.001）. By manner of articulation, errors occurred in the following order: affricates（285/39.36%）>stops（180/24.86%）>fricatives（162/22.38%）>laterals（60/8.29%）>nasals（37/5.11%）. The error frequency distribution across these five manners of articulation also showed a statistically significant difference（χ²=276.26, P<0.001）. Conclusion:Consonant distortion in children with FAD demonstrates distinct specificity in place of articulation, vowel structure, and manner of articulation. Clinicians should particularly pay attention to anomalies involving tonguetip related consonants, affricates, and consonants followed by specific vowels（such as /i/）, so as to avoid diagnostic errors.