The phonological memory profile of preschool children who make atypical speech sound errors

Abstract

Previous research indicates that children with speech sound disorders (SSD) have underlying phonological memory deficits. The SSD population, however, is diverse. While children who make consistent atypical speech errors (phonological disorder/PhDis) are known to have executive function deficits in rule abstraction and cognitive flexibility, little is known about their memory profile. Sixteen monolingual preschool children with atypical speech errors (PhDis) were matched individually to age-and-gender peers with typically developing speech (TDS). The two groups were compared on forward recall of familiar words (pointing response), reverse recall of familiar words (pointing response), and reverse recall of digits (spoken response) and a receptive vocabulary task. There were no differences between children with TDS and children with PhDis on forward recall or vocabulary tasks. However, children with TDS significantly outperformed children with PhDis on the two reverse recall tasks. Findings suggest that atypical speech errors are associated with impaired phonological working memory, implicating executive function impairment in specific subtypes of SSD.

KEYWORDS:

• Phonological disorder
• pre-school aged children
• short-term memory
• speech sound disorders
• working memory

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Sue Franklin for her invaluable advice on measuring memory skills in young children. Thanks also to Catharine Pettigrew and Rachael-Anne Knight for reading earlier drafts and providing enlightening feedback. Finally, a huge thank you to the expatriate families in Singapore who allowed their children to participate in this study and to the preschools and friends who helped facilitate the recruitment process.

Declaration of interest

The authors of this article report no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This research received support through an Australian Government Research and Training Program Scholarship.

Additional information

Funding

This research received support through an Australian Government Research and Training Program Scholarship.