Performance of articulation-disordered children on language and perception measures

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Articulation disorders in children can impact language development and speech perception.
• Understanding specific error patterns (syllable reduction, substitution) is crucial for targeted interventions.
• Previous research suggests links between articulation, language, and phonological processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare articulation-disordered children (syllable reducers vs. substituters) with typically developing peers.
• To investigate expressive and receptive language skills in these groups.
• To assess perception of word-initial and word-final voicing contrasts.

Main Methods:

• Classification of five-year-old children into syllable reducers, substituters, and normal controls.
• Administration of expressive and receptive language measures.
• Evaluation of perception for word-initial and word-final voicing contrasts.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in imitative expressive language measures were found between groups.
• Syllable reducers exhibited deletion and substitution errors; substituters showed substitution errors for functors.
• Articulation-disordered groups performed worse on initial voicing perception than controls; no difference in final voicing perception.

Conclusions:

• Articulation disorder subtypes manifest distinct expressive language error patterns.
• Difficulties in perceiving initial voicing contrasts are associated with articulation disorders.
• Word familiarity influences performance on language and speech perception tasks.