posted on 2016-03-21, 11:44authored byJessica Lyons
Background: Objective measures of children’s speech accuracy are used to track changes in children’s speech over time. Although many existing measures are available, there is a lack of consensus regarding the reliability and sensitivity of these measures, and whether segmental or whole-word analysis is a more sensitive approach.
Objectives: To determine whether the whole-word measure of proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP) is more sensitive to change than the segmental measure of percentage of consonants correct (PCC) in the speech of children with speech sound difficulties (SSD’s).
Methods: Data was drawn from twelve monolingual English speaking children (7 males; 5 females) with SSD’s aged between 3;2-4;5. The phonology subtest of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP), and the Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT) were administered to gain a single word and connected speech sample at initial assessment and again eight weeks later. PCC and PWP were calculated across all samples.
Results: Results indicated that there were no significant difference between the sensitivity of PCC and PWP when analysing change in children’s speech accuracy for the sample as a whole. Individual cases are discussed to illustrate how PCC captured more change in some cases, while PWP captured more change in others. These cases are exemplified.
Conclusions: This study was limited by the small amount of change that occurred in the group between the two time points. Where change was apparent, the two measures showed differential sensitivity to different types of change. Implications for practice are discussed.