Whole word measures in bilingual children with speech sound disorders

This study assesses the phonological development of four Finnish-speaking children (ages 4;8, 4;9, 4;9 and 5;5) with specific language impairment (SLI) and dyspractic features in speech. The analysis is performed using the phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU) method. Moreover, the children's phonological abilities are evaluated qualitatively in relation to segments, phonotactics and word structure. The results are compared with those obtained from four age-matched typically developing peers and with the data from an earlier study using the pMLU method on younger, typically developing Finnish children. In the pMLU analysis, the children with SLI performed roughly at the level of typically developing 2-year-old children. The qualitative analyses revealed that children with SLI had difficulties in producing word-medial clusters and word-initial consonants and that they exhibited frequent consonant assimilations, infrequent errors and vowel errors. The pMLU method did differentiate between children with SLI and typically developing children. However, qualitative analyses revealed some weaknesses of the pMLU method when assessing Finnish children with SLI.

supporting

confidence: 71%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonological mean length of utterance in specific language impairment: a multi-case study of children acquiring Finnish

Kunnari

Saaristo-Helin²,

Savinainen-Makkonen

2012

“…This finding was not surprising given prior findings in the literature. For example, Burrows and Goldstein (2010) reported no difference between monolingual and bilingual speakers of Spanish with respect to production accuracy for segments or whole-words. Examining a larger sample of four-to-sevenyear-old children, Goldstein, Bunta, Lange, Rodriguez, and Burrows (2010) found that relative amount of exposure to Spanish or English did not result in significant differences in consonant accuracy; direct measures of language proficiency were predictive of segment accuracy for this same sample of older children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Speech articulation performance of francophone children in the early school years: Norming of theTest de Dépistage Francophone de Phonologie

Rvachew

Marquis

Brosseau-Lapré

et al. 2013

Good quality normative data are essential for clinical practice in speech-language pathology but are largely lacking for French-speaking children. We investigated speech production accuracy by French-speaking children attending kindergarten (maternelle) and first grade (première année). The study aimed to provide normative data for a new screening test - the Test de Dépistage Francophone de Phonologie. Sixty-one children named 30 pictures depicting words selected to be representative of the distribution of phonemes, syllable shapes and word lengths characteristic of Québec French. Percent consonants' correct was approximately 90% and did not change significantly with age although younger children produced significantly more syllable structure errors than older children. Given that the word set reflects the segmental and prosodic characteristics of spoken Québec French, and that ceiling effects were not observed, these results further indicate that phonological development is not complete by the age of seven years in French-speaking children.

“…In addition, three of the children in Barlow (2003) were diagnosed with phonological delay, whereas the children in the current study were all typically-developing. In addition to Barlow (2003), only one study to date details the phonological error patterns in bilingual Spanish–English-speaking children with phonological disorders (Burrows & Goldstein, 2010); therefore little data exist on the differences between typically-developing Spanish–English-speaking bilingual children and those with phonological delay or disorder to make a definitive claim that phonological skill is driving differences between the two studies. Finally, because both studies examined a small set of children, differences between the two studies could be due to the individual variation across the subjects selected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of the stop-spirant alternation in bilingual Mexican Spanish–English speaking children: Theoretical and clinical implications

Fabiano-Smith

Oglivie

Maiefski

et al. 2014

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of typical acquisition of the Mexican Spanish stop-spirant alternation in bilingual Spanish–English speaking children and to shed light on the theoretical debate over which sound is the underlying form in the stop-spirant allophonic relationship. We predicted that bilingual children would acquire knowledge of this allophonic relationship by the time they reach age 5;0 (years;months) and would demonstrate higher accuracy on the spirants, indicating their role as the underlying phoneme. This quasi-longitudinal study examined children’s single word samples in Spanish from ages 2;4–8;2. Samples were phonetically transcribed and analyzed for accuracy, substitution errors and acoustically for intensity ratios. Bilingual children demonstrated overall higher accuracy on the voiced stops as compared to the spirants. Differences in substitution errors across ages were found and acoustic analyses corroborated perceptual findings. The clinical implication of this research is that bilingual children may be in danger of overdiagnosis of speech sound disorders because acquisition of this allophonic rule in bilinguals appears to differ from what has been found in previous studies examining monolingual Spanish speakers.