Phonological learning and lexicality of treated stimuli

Abstract

The purpose was to evaluate the lexicality of treated stimuli relative to phonological learning by preschool children with functional phonological disorders. Four children were paired in a single-subject alternating treatments design that was overlaid on a multiple baseline across subjects design. Within each pair, one child was taught one sound in real words and a second sound in non-words; for the other child of the pair, lexicality was reversed and counterbalanced. The dependent variable was production accuracy of the treated sounds as measured during the session-by-session course of instruction. Results indicated that production accuracy of the treated sound was as good as or better using non-word as opposed to real word stimuli. The clinical implications are considered, along with potential accounts of the patterns of learning.

Keywords:

• phonological disorders
• phonological treatment
• non-words
• lexicon

Acknowledgements

This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIDCD 0001694) to Indiana University. We would like to thank members of the Learnability Project for assistance with data transcription, management, and analysis. Suzanne M. Ziemer contributed in early phases of the study, and Dan Dinnsen provided input throughout.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1. Under some clinical descriptions (e.g. Hodson and Paden, 1983; Fey, 1992), a distinction is made between articulatory and phonological disorders. Within linguistics, this distinction is unnecessary because the formal study of phonology incorporates phonetic and phonemic structure, along with rule-governed phonological changes, in a parsimonious model comprised of multiple levels of representational structure (Chomsky and Halle, 1968; McCarthy, 2002; see also Dinnsen, 1984; Gierut, 2001 for clinical applications). The present work is framed within this linguistic perspective.