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

Abstract

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.

• Articulation
• assessment
• French
• phonology
• screening

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the schools, children and parents who participated in this project. We thank Catherine Lamirande, Madeleine Bellemare, Catherine Clémence, Tara Commandeur and Geneviève Beauregard-Paultre for research assistance.