Cognitive abilities in children does speech depend on them?

Some researchers have posited that deficits in underlying cognitive-linguistic abilities such as auditory discrimination, pattern recognition or rule derivation underlie some types of speech sound disorder (SSD). However, no research has produced norms for the performance of children with normally developing speech on tests designed to capture those abilities. This project was undertaken to inform a larger study on the role of underlying cognitive skills in speech sound disorders by answering the following questions:  What are the normative data for young children on cognitive tests?  Does cognitive performance progress with age?  Is there a relationship between scores on cognitive tests and speech accuracy?  Does socio-economic status affect the performance of children on cognitive and speech measures? Speech development and cognitive-linguistic skills of 55 typically developing children, aged between 3:00 and 5:04, were assessed. The sample contained 21 children from economically deprived areas. Speech was assessed using the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP). Five novel cognitive tests were used to test: discrimination of non-word similarity; number concepts; auditory memory; pattern recognition; and phonological legality. Normative data was obtained which will inform a larger study. Significant correlations were found between age in months and results on all cognitive tests except for auditory memory. There were no significant correlations found between PCC and scores on the cognitive tests. Children who came from economically deprived areas generally performed worse on cognitive tests. However, their speech accuracy was equal to or better than their peers, who were not from economically deprived areas, on speech accuracy measures. While this dissociation between speech performance and cognitive performance is interesting, it does not disprove the hypothesis of other researchers that cognitive deficits underlie SSD, as the children in this sample were typically developing.