Polysyllable productions in preschool children with speech sound disorders: Error categories and the Framework of Polysyllable Maturity

Abstract

Purpose: Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) find polysyllables difficult; however, routine sampling and measurement of speech accuracy are insufficient to describe polysyllable accuracy and maturity. This study had two aims: (1) compare two speech production tasks and (2) describe polysyllable errors within the Framework of Polysyllable Maturity.

Method: Ninety-three preschool children with SSD from the Sound Start Study (4;0–5;5 years) completed the Polysyllable Preschool Test (POP) and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP-Phonology).

Result: Vowel accuracy was significantly different between the POP and the DEAP-Phonology. Polysyllables were analysed using the seven Word-level Analysis of Polysyllables (WAP) error categories: (1) substitution of consonants or vowels (97.8% of children demonstrated common use), (2) deletion of syllables, consonants or vowels (65.6%), (3) distortion of consonants or vowels (0.0%), (4) addition of consonants or vowels (0.0%), (5) alteration of phonotactics (77.4%), (6) alteration of timing (63.4%) and (7) assimilation or alteration of sequence (0.0%). The Framework of Polysyllable Maturity described five levels of maturity based on children’s errors.

Conclusions: Polysyllable productions of preschool children with SSD can be analysed and categorised using the WAP and interpreted using the Framework of Polysyllable Maturity.

Keywords:

• Speech sound disorders
• speech impairment
• phonology
• assessment
• polysyllables
• multisyllables

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP130102545). The first author acknowledges support from an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship from the Department of Education. The authors thank Yvonne Wren, Sue Roulstone, Kate Crowe, Charlotte Howland and Felicity McKellar who provided support with the design of the study, data collection and entry.

Supplementary material available online

Notes

¹Demographic data was obtained from 32 of the 33 participating sites. A total of 1340 children attended 32 participating sites. Demographic data was only collected from participants at the final site based on questionnaire returns (n = 13).

²Within the IRSAD coding system, postcodes throughout Australia are allocated a decile between 1-–10 to represent the social and economic context of residents within that postcode. Areas with a low index score indicate an area of least advantage, whereas areas with a higher index score represent areas of most advantage.