Speech Sound Disorders: The importance of speech inconsistency
Date Issued
June 17, 2025
Author(s)
Abstract
Purpose: The study examined speech production inconsistency in typically developing bidialectal Cypriot-Greek speaking children. The aim of the study was twofold: study aimed to develop preliminary data on measures related to speech inconsistency across single-word productions. Data can be used to form the basis for speech performance comparison vis-à-vis production from children with speech sound disorders. The aim of the study was two-fold: (a) to measure the presence of inconsistency and (b) to map error patterns. It was an exploratory investigation, motivated by the sparsity of cross-language data on clinical measures necessary in the assessment, diagnosis and taxonomy of clinical profiles of children who exhibit protracted speech development.
Method: Participants included 18 children ages 4;6-7;0 years (M= 6, SD =1.05). The control group consisted of nine children with typical development, recruited form local kindergarten and primary schools. The experimental group included nine children with the diagnosis of speech sound disorders, recruited form the Cyprus University of Technology Rehabilitation Clinic and numerous private speech language therapy centers. Experimental stimuli included 40 disyllabic, trisyllabic and multisyllabic words depicted on pictures. Children were asked to name each stimulus three times non-consecutively during a 60- minute experimental session.
Results: Responses were scored on the basis of a binomial system with 0 indication no-inconsistency and 1 corresponding to the presence of inconsistency. Percentage of inconsistency was calculated with the formula inconsistent words divided by total number of words X 100. U = 81.0, p < 0.001 Non-parametric analysis of Mann-Whitney revealed significant differences between the experimental group (Mean = 70.5%; SD= 16.7) versus the control group (M = 1.9%; SD = 26%), U = 81.0, p < 0.001.
Conclusion: Inconsistency as a clinical measure provides insights into the typology of errors and speech production difficulties consistent with speech sound disorder profiles.
Method: Participants included 18 children ages 4;6-7;0 years (M= 6, SD =1.05). The control group consisted of nine children with typical development, recruited form local kindergarten and primary schools. The experimental group included nine children with the diagnosis of speech sound disorders, recruited form the Cyprus University of Technology Rehabilitation Clinic and numerous private speech language therapy centers. Experimental stimuli included 40 disyllabic, trisyllabic and multisyllabic words depicted on pictures. Children were asked to name each stimulus three times non-consecutively during a 60- minute experimental session.
Results: Responses were scored on the basis of a binomial system with 0 indication no-inconsistency and 1 corresponding to the presence of inconsistency. Percentage of inconsistency was calculated with the formula inconsistent words divided by total number of words X 100. U = 81.0, p < 0.001 Non-parametric analysis of Mann-Whitney revealed significant differences between the experimental group (Mean = 70.5%; SD= 16.7) versus the control group (M = 1.9%; SD = 26%), U = 81.0, p < 0.001.
Conclusion: Inconsistency as a clinical measure provides insights into the typology of errors and speech production difficulties consistent with speech sound disorder profiles.
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