Objective: Disorders of articulation or speech-sound disorders (SSD) are common in early childhood. Children with these disorders may be at risk for reading difficulties because they may have poor auditory, phonologic, and verbal memory skills.
Methods:We sought to characterize the reading and writing readiness of preschool children with SSD and identify factors associated with preliteracy skills. Subjects were 125 children aged 3 to 6 years with moderate to severe SSD; 53% had comorbid language impairment (LI). Reading readiness was measured with the Test of Early Reading Ability-2 (TERA) and writing skills with the Test of Early Written Language-2 (TEWL), which assessed print concept knowledge. Linear regression was used to examine the association between SSD severity and TERA and TEWL scores and analysis of variance to examine the effect of comorbid LI. Performance on a battery of speech and language tests was reduced by way of factor analysis to composites for articulation, narrative, grammar, and word knowledge skills.
Results:Early reading and writing scores were significantly lower for children with comorbid LI but were not related to SSD severity once language status was taken into account. Composites for grammar and word knowledge were related to performance on the TERA and TEWL, even after adjusting for Performance IQ. Below average language skills in preschool place a child at risk for deficits in preliteracy skills, which may have implications for the later development of reading disability.
Conclusion:Preschool children with SSD and LI may benefit from instruction in preliteracy skills in addition to language therapy. Keywords speech-sound disorders; language impairment; preschool literacy skills; print concept knowledge Speech and language disorders are among the most common developmental conditions in early childhood, affecting 4% to 10% of children. 1,2 Some studies report rates of expressive language delay as high as 17.5% in preschool children. 3 Speech-sound disorders (SSD) involve impairments in speech-sound production and range from mild articulation issues involving a limited number of speech sounds to more severe phonologic disorders involving multiple errors in speech-sound production and reduced intelligibility. The prevalence of SSDs is highest for Copyright © 2007
NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript preschool-age children, and the condition appears to resolve in 75% of children by age 6. 4 In contrast, language disorders involve delays or deficits in expressive or receptive language development, or both, with an estimated prevalence of 7% at kindergarten age. 1 The goal of this study was to determine how preschool-age children with moderate to severe SSD perform on measures of early reading and writing. We sought to determine factors associated with early literacy skills among children with SSD, including co-existing language impairment (LI).There has been significant emphasis on the role of phonologic processing, the ability to deconstr...