Articles

Comparison of Speech Processing in Children with Articulation and Phonological Disorders and Typically Developing Children

AUTHOR
Deok Gi Chae, Eun Kyoung Lee
INFORMATION
2025, Vol. 10, Issue 2 / pp. 107-115
e-ISSN
2508-5948
p-ISSN

ABSTRACT

Purpose : This study aimed to compare speech processing between typically developing children and those with articulation and phonological disorders by examining performance across three stages: input, lexical representations, and output.Methods The participants consisted of 33 typically developing children and 23 children with articulation and phonological disorders, aged 4 to 6. According to the speech processing model, three tasks were carried out: a phonetic discrimination task, a phonological representation judgment task, and a nonword repetition task. Independent t-tests, mixed-design ANOVAs, and Pearson correlations were conducted.Results : The results indicated no significant differences between the groups in the phonetic discrimination task. However, in the phonological representation judgment task, typically developing children performed significantly better than those with articulation and phonological disorders (p < .001). In the nonword repetition task, both groups displayed decreased performance as syllable length increased. Typically developing children consistently outperformed the other group in all syllable conditions (p < .001). Correlation analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between phonetic discrimination and phonological representation judgment, but no significant correlation was found with nonword repetition.Conclusions : The findings indicate that difficulties experienced by children with articulation and phonological disorders may not stem from how they perceive speech input, but rather from weaknesses in their phonological representation and speech programming. This study underscores the importance of assessing speech processing at various stages to guide personalized clinical interventions.

Keyword
articulation and phonological disorders phonetic discrimination task phonological representation judgment task nonword repetition task speech processing

REFERENCES

  1. Nicolosi L, Harryman E, Kresheck J. Terminology of communication disorders: speech-language-hearing. 4th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1996.
  2. Stackhouse J, Wells B. Children's speech and literacy difficulties: a psycholinguistic framework. London: Whurr; 1997.
  3. Dodd B, Zhu H, Crosbie S, Holm A, Ozanne A. Diagnostic evaluation of articulation and phonology. London: Psychology Corporation; 2002.
  4. Yi RD, Kim SJ. A literature review on diagnostic markers and subtype classification of children with speech sound disorders. Phonetics Speech Sci. 2022;14(2):87-99. https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2022.14.2.087 [Crossref]
  5. Nathan L, Stackhouse J, Goulandris N. Speech processing abilities in children with speech vs speech and language difficulties. Int J Lang Commun Disord. 1998;33:457-62. https://doi.org/10.3109/13682829809179468 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  6. Baker E, Croot K, McLeod S, Paul R. Psycholinguistic models of speech development and their application to clinical practice. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2001;44(3): 685-702. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2001/055) [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  7. Bernthal JE, Bankson NW. Articulation and phonological disorders. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1993.
  8. Lof GL, Synan ST. Is there a speech discrimination/ perception link to disordered articulation and phonology? A review of 80 years of literature. Contemp Issues Commun Sci Disord. 1997;24(Spring):57-71. https://doi.org/10.1044/cicsd_24_S_57 [Crossref]
  9. Pascoe M, Stackhouse J, Wells B. Phonological therapy within a psycholinguistic framework: promoting change in a child with persisting speech difficulties. Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2005;40(2):189-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/13682820412331290979 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  10. Locke JL. The sound shape of early lexical representations. In: Smith MD, Locke JL, editors. The emergent lexicon: the child's development of a linguistic vocabulary. New York: Academic Press; 1983. p.
  11. Claessen M, Heath S, Fletcher J, Hogben J, Leitão S. Quality of phonological representations: a window into the lexicon? Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2009;44(2):121-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/13682820801966317 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  12. Storkel H. Restructuring of similarity neighbourhoods in the developing mental lexicon. J Child Lang. 2002;29(2): 251-74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000902005032 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  13. Sutherland D. Phonological representations, phonological awareness, and print decoding ability in children with moderate to severe speech impairment [Doctoral dissertation]. Christchurch: University of
  14. Sutherland D, Gillon GT. Development of phonological representations and phonological awareness in children with speech impairment. Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2007;42(2):229-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13682820600806672 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  15. Bowey JA, Hirakis E. Testing the protracted lexical restructuring hypothesis: the effects of position and acoustic-phonetic clarity on sensitivity to mispronunciations in children and adults. J Exp Chil https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2006.02.001 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  16. Chute EM. The nature of phonological representations in adults and children: evidence of mispronunciation detection. Bachelor's thesis. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona; 2011.
  17. Gathercole SE. Is nonword repetition a test of phonological memory or long-term knowledge? It all depends on the nonwords. Mem Cognit. 1995;23(1):83-94. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210559 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  18. Kim YT, Hong GH, Kim KH, Jang HS, Lee JY. Receptive and expressive vocabulary test (REVT). Seoul Community Rehabilitation Center; 2009.
  19. Kim YT, Shin MJ, Kim SJ, Ha JW. Urimal test of articulation and phonology-2. Seoul: Hakjisa; 2020.
  20. Dollaghan C, Campbell TF. Nonword repetition and child language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1998;41(5): 1136-1146. https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4105.1136 [Crossref] [Pubmed]
  21. Cho BS, Sim HS. Functional articulation disorders and speech sound discrimination ability in children. Clin Linguist Phon. 2001;5(2):1-13.
  22. Kim JY. Analysis of predictive factors in children's native and foreign language speech production through the development of speech processing task [Doctoral dissertation]. Gyeongbuk: Daegu University;
  23. Preston JL, Irwin JR, Turcios J. Perception of speech sounds in school-aged children with speech sound disorders. Semin Speech Lang. 2015;36(4):224-33. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0035-1562906 [Crossref] [Pubmed] [ETC]
  24. Kim NY, Ha JW. Phonological representations in children with articulation and phonological disorders. Commun Sci Disord. 2013;19(2):226-37. https://doi.org/10.12963/csd.14105 [Crossref]
  25. Ha S. Nonword repetition in terms of subtypes of children with speech sound disorders. Commun Sci Disord. 2020;25(4):929-37. https://doi.org/10.12963/csd.20763 [Crossref]
  26. Belanger RM, Mayer-Crittenden C, Brouillette M. Linguistic skills and working memory in monolingual and bilingual children born prematurely: preliminary data. Clin Arch Commun Disord. 2017;22(3):273-84. https://doi.org/10.21849/cacd.2016.00101 [Crossref]
  27. Salvatore AP, Cannito MP, Hewitt J, Dolan LD, King G, Brassil HE. Motor speech and motor limb status in athletes following a concussion. Clin Arch Commun Disord. 2019;4(3):214-22. https://doi.org/10.21849/cacd.2019.00150 [Crossref]
  28. Stark RE, Blackwell PB. Oral volitional movements in children with language impairments. Child Neuropsychol. 1997;3(2):81-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049708401370 [Crossref]