Speech Perception in Children With Speech Sound Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This study aimed to evaluate the evidence on speech perception abilities of children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) to understand how the perceptual skills contribute to the diagnosis and characterization of SSDs.

We conducted a systematic and meta-analysis by searching four electronic databases for studies published between 2017 and 2025 that examined the speech perception skills of children with SSDs. We qualitatively evaluated the included studies based on study characteristics and methodological quality and performed a meta-analysis for the eligible homogeneous studies.

Forty-nine papers met the inclusion criteria for the qualitative synthesis. Half of the studies featured identification tasks, while the other half featured discrimination, judgment, or neurophysiological paradigms. Methodological quality ranged from 74% to 96%. Seven homogeneous studies that used the forced-choice identification task were included for the meta-analysis. The pooled effect size based on 277 participants (SSD: n = 140, typically developing [TD]: n = 137) was statistically significant (Hedges's g = 0.84, p < .001), indicating that the speech perception scores of children with SSDs are lower than those of TD children.

These findings demonstrate that children with SSDs show measurable deficits in speech perception, underscoring the clinical importance of assessing perceptual skills when diagnosing SSDs. Identification tasks currently provide the most consistent evidence, while emerging neurophysiological methods expand insight into underlying processing mechanisms. Recommendations for future research include examining perception in more natural listening conditions, such as speech perception in noise, and testing whether perceptual interventions can improve speech outcomes.

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33246702.