A second look at tests of speech-sound discrimination

This study is an extension of an earlier study conducted by Bountress and Laderberg (1981), which compared the performances of a group of children on two tests of speech-sound discrimination, the Wepman test and Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock test. The present study consisted of two treatments: The dual administration of the Boston University Speech Sound Discrimination Test and Wepman, and the Boston and Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock to two groups of 25 children. An analysis of the results of the two treatments indicated that, as was the case in Bountress and Laderberg's original research comparing the Wepman and Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock, neither the Boston or Wepman nor the Boston or Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock comparisons provided evidence that they are comparable measures of speech-sound discrimination. The results of both studies are analyzed, and implications are discussed.