Revised Picture Articulation Test in Hindi

Abstract

Hindi is one of the most commonly spoken languages with more than 500 million speakers globally. However, the existing assessment tools in Hindi primarily focus on development of speech sounds up to a limited age group. They also do not assess many of the consonant and compound consonant sounds across initial, medial and final position in the words; limiting their applicability and accuracy within the Hindi-speaking population. Hence, the need arises for a comprehensive and standardized assessment tool in Hindi to cater to the unique linguistic characteristics and phonetic patterns of this population. The availability of a revised Picture Articulation Test in Hindi would enhance the accuracy of assessment of speech sound disorders in children and enable appropriate intervention planning, thereby improving therapeutic outcomes. II.REVIEW OF LITERATURE Mastery of the phonemic system is essential for a child's language development. The phonemes serve as the basic building blocks for the language's words which are therefore an important aspect of the grammatical system. The child recognizes the symbolic role of language, develops the rudiments of the grammar of his community's language and masters the phonemic system during the era of language acquisition which mainly includes the preschool and early school years. Speech is the vocal manifestation of language that connects meaning to sounds, which are called phonemes. Speech is the most exquisite and intricate serially ordered neuromotor behavior that humans are capable of producing. The generation of speech sounds is a complex process that requires precise planning, coordination and movement of several articulators. Clear speech results from proper articulation. Speech Sound Disorders are the errors or difficulties with perception, motor production or phonological representation of speech sounds and speech segments and with the rules governing permissible speech sound sequences in a language (Bernthal & Bankson, 2017). Speech Sound Disorder is the umbrella term, it refers to any combination of difficulties with perception, motor production and/or the phonological representation of speech sounds and speech segments (including phonotactic rules that govern syllable shape, structure and stress as well as prosody) that impact speech intelligibility (Randolph, 2017). Sound or speech disorders are the disorders of communication in which the normal sound and speech is impaired. This can result into number of further disorders. ASHA (2004) says that clinical indications for a speech sound assessment are initiated by referral (from a health or an education professional), the client's medical status or by failing a speech language screening. Assessment is the procedure by which the clinician measures the individual's disorder. It can be divided into two phases: appraisal and diagnosis (Darley, 1991). Appraisal refers to the collection of data, while the diagnosis represents the end results of studying and interpreting these data. Effective assessments are essential for clini...