%0 Journal Article %T Delayed and disordered development of articulation and phonology between four and seven years %A Angela Morgan %A Barbara Dodd %A Katherine Brommeyer %A Kelly Ng %A Kyriaki Ttofari-Eecen %A Sheena Reilly %J Child Language Teaching and Therapy %@ 1477-0865 %D 2018 %R 10.1177/0265659017735958 %X Some childrenĄ¯s speech impairment resolves spontaneously. Others have persistent problems affecting academic and social development. Identifying early markers that reliably predict long-term outcome would allow better prioritization for preschool intervention. This article evaluates the significance of different types of speech errors, made by 93 four-year-olds in a longitudinal population cohort study, for performance at seven years. At four years, the non-age appropriate speech errors made on standardized assessments were categorized as: phonologically delayed (error patterns typical of younger children); or, some errors atypical of normal development, including consistent errors (e.g. word initial consonant deletion), inconsistent pronunciations of the same word, or lateral distortion of /s, z/). Delayed children, some with occasional interdental /s, z/ articulation errors, were more likely to resolve (67%) than those making atypical errors (35%) by seven years. Qualitative analyses indicated that children making few atypical errors were more likely to resolve, irrespective of total number of errors or whether they received intervention. The findingsĄ¯ theoretical implications relate to deficits underlying phonological disorders. Clinical implications concern assessment measures and prioritization for intervention %K articulation %K longitudinal study %K phonological delay %K phonological disorder %K predicting persistence %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0265659017735958