A phonological assessment test for child Greek

ABSTRACT

This article advances a clinical tool for assessing typical and atypical phonological development in children speaking standard Modern Greek or Hellenic (ISO 639.1, el). The proposed tool develops a comprehensive test that is archetypical of the standard idiom and of predominant dialectal variations and seeks to be readily available for logopedics and language researchers of child Greek anywhere. By utilising the constraint-based nonlinear theoretical framework, this Greek battery complements a larger study that utilises equivalent methodology in the evaluation of phonological acquisition of monolingual children with typical and protracted phonological development across several languages. As an example, the efficacy of the tool is tested by administering it to a monolingual Greek-speaking girl, aged 4;8, whose speech shows evidence of delay on different phonological levels when compared to known monolingual norms/data. The ultimate aim is a standardised test to help establish reliable quantitative norms/stages in child Greek development, as a benchmark for assessment and intervention of phonological delay and disorder.

KEYWORDS:

• Child
• phonological assessment
• delayed/disordered
• typical
• Greek

Author’s note

The assessment tools are available free of charge through the website phonodevelopment.sites.olt.ubc.ca (or by contacting the author) along with tutorials on nonlinear phonological analysis and examples of therapy activities.

Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to Barbara May Bernhardt of the University of British Columbia for encouraging this work, for suggestions, comments, and review of the manuscript, and to Elizabeth MacLeod of Vancouver, British Columbia, for reviewing the word list.

Disclosure Statement

The author reports no conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.