%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