Poster #75 - The predictions of phonological processing abilities to articulation performance in children with speech sound disorders

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Background
Speech sound disorders (SSD) are common in preschool children. Children with SSDs have more speech production errors than children with typical development (TD), and may comorbid with developmental language delays (DLD). Speech processing model (Stackhouse & Wells,1997) emphasized multiple levels of phonological processing on the speech input side, which could influence individuals’ articulation output. This study aimed to examine a series of speech perception, phonological awareness and phonological working memory measures of Mandarin-speaking preschool children with TD, SSD, and with SSD/DLD. The path analysis was used to further determine the predictions of various phonological processing abilities to their articulation performance.

Methods
A total of 128 Mandarin-speaking children (aged 5;7 to 6;4) participated, including 41 TD children, 54 children with SSD, and 33 children with SSD/DLD. Performances of speech production and language were assessed using standardized speech and language assessments to validate the qualification of three groups. None of them had any neurological disorders or significant sensory impairments. Three self-designed computerized tasks were used to measure individual’s phonological processing abilities, including (a). Speech perception: the accuracy of consonant/tone discrimination, (b). Phonological working memory: the accuracy of nonword repetition (NWR) task with 2-6 word-syllable, (c). Phonological awareness: the accuracy of syllable deletion task with two-three syllables. Individuals’ articulation performance was assessed using the standardized speech test (i.e., APTMC) to measure the percent correct of consonants, words, and syllables in the picture naming and sentence repetition.

Results
Results of ANOVAs showed significant group differences on all measures of phonological processing abilities (see Table 1). LSD post hoc tests further illustrated the comparison results among three groups of children. As a group, children with SSD/DLD performed significantly poorer than age-matched peers on all of phonological processing measures. Children with SSD performed poorer on speech perception and articulation compared to their TD peers. The result of path analysis revealed that phonological awareness and phonological working memory mediated the relationship between speech perception and articulation output. Figure 1 has shown that a significant indirect effect of speech perception on phonological awareness (β =.408, p < .001) and phonological working memory (β =.387, p < .001). There were significant direct effects of phonological awareness (β =.221, p < .05) and phonological working memory (β =.231, p < .05) on articulation. The predictive pathways between speech perception and phonological working memory, or speech perception and phonological awareness were reciprocal, and there was no direct prediction of speech perception to the articulation output.

Conclusions
The present findings suggest that phonological processing and articulation performances were significantly different among three groups, including TD children, SSD children, and TD+DLD children. Multiple levels of phonological processing (including speech perception, phonological working memory, and phonological awareness) were directly or indirectly predictive to individuals’ articulation performance indicating the importance of phonological input processing abilities on the articulation output.

Authors

• Huei-Mei Liu, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU)

• Chia-Yun Hsu, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU)
  Presenting Author