The development of speech output processing skills in Greek-speaking children

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of literature on phonological development in Greek-speaking children, either typically developing (TD) or with speech sound disorders (SSD). In this paper, a cross-sectional longitudinal approach was used to investigate the development of speech output processing skills in TD Greek-speaking preschool-aged children. Moreover, a group of Greek-speaking children with SSD were assessed to identify potential loci of impairment in atypical development. The developmental study involved two groups: group 1 (n = 16) aged 3;0–3;5 years and group 2 (n = 22) aged 4;6–5;0 years, assessed at three assessment points six months apart. Children with SSD (n = 15) aged 5;6–6;0 years were assessed to be compared with performance of group 2 TD children (at the third assessment point). Assessment tasks included (a) a picture naming task, (b) a task of real word repetition and (c) a task of nonword repetition. A strong time effect was found in both groups of TD children in the development of speech output processing abilities. Performance accuracy was higher on tasks including real words than nonwords; children performed more accurately on repetition rather than spontaneous naming of real words; repetition accuracy on 2–3 syllables items was significantly better than on 4–5 syllables items. Children with SSD were outperformed by TD children of the same age in all assessment tasks; lexicality and word length effect were found in the clinical group. Findings from the present study may be used as a starting point to diagnose children with speech production difficulties in Greece.

KEYWORDS:

• Speech output processing
• Greek-speaking children
• typical development
• speech sound disorders

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the teachers of schools where the data were collected as well as participating children and their parents.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.