Speech Production-Perception Relationships in Children with Speech Delay

This study examines the relationship between speech perception and speech production in children with speech delay (SD). Sixtythree children who participated in the Nemours Genetics of Speech Delay Project were categorized as either typically developing (TD) or SD. The children with SD were subgrouped by their articulation errors on the /s/ and // sounds tested in a perception experiment. An identification task was used to assess children’s perceptual ability to identify common error sounds using four sets of a 9-step synthetic continuum. The current study did not observe large boundary shifts in children with SD compared with TD children for the /s/-// contrast. However, one group of children who had articulation errors on both contrasting sounds exhibited a non-categorical perception pattern, whereas the other group exhibited functions similar to the control group. Furthermore, boundary shifts were observed in the perception of /k/-/g/ contrast in the children who made articulation errors on //. The results suggest that children with delayed speech can be classified into various subgroups based on speech production as well as speech perception measures. A group of children might have poor perceptual abilities to identify phonemic sounds even though they do not exhibit articulation errors.