A profiling approach to intelligibility problems

Abstract

This paper describes the notion of the linguistic profiling of disordered communication, and in particular the profiling of disordered speech. The PACS system is introduced, and applied to the speech of a 7;0 year old boy with highly unintelligible speech. The analysis includes a series of profiling charts that illustrate the client's phonetic and phonological output, and the paper concludes with suggestions for remediation planning that emerge from the profile.

Keywords:

• Linguistic profile
• phonology
• disordered speech

Notes

1 We decided not to attempt to capture Jarrod's speech patterns in terms of ‘processes’ for two reasons. First of all, there is a high degree of variability in how he realizes target sounds, even though this variability is patterned, and not random (see discussion below). Secondly, we prefer to use the term “process” in a narrow sense, following Stampe's (1972) definition of a natural phonological process as a mental operation that in speech effects a simplification of a class of target sounds or sound sequences. Jarrod's variable patterns often do not appear to “simplify” the target sound sequences, but rather, he produces something that is at least as complex as the target, see for example, his realization of sausage as [].