The following manuscript has
been accepted for publication
McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J.,
McAllister, L. & McCormack. J. (2012, in press December). Speech sound
disorders in a community study of preschool children. American Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology.
ABSTRACT:
Purpose. To undertake a
community (non-clinical) study to describe the speech of preschool children
identified by parents/teachers as having difficulties “talking and making
speech sounds” and compare those who had and had not accessed the services of a
speech-language pathologist (SLP).
Method. Stage 1: Parent/teacher
concern regarding speech skills of 1,097 4- to 5-year-old children attending
early childhood centers was documented. Stage 2a: 143 children identified with
concerns were assessed. Stage 2b: Parents returned questionnaires about service
access for 109 children.
Results. The majority of the 143
children (86.7%) achieved a standard score below the normal range for the
percentage of consonants correct (PCC) on the Diagnostic Evaluation of
Articulation and Phonology (Dodd, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2002).
Consonants produced incorrectly were consistent with the late-8 phonemes
(Shriberg, 1993). Common phonological patterns were: fricative simplification
(82.5%), cluster simplification (49.0%)/reduction (19.6%), gliding (41.3%), and
palatal fronting (15.4%). Interdental lisps on /s/ and /z/ were produced by
39.9% of children, dentalization of other sibilants by 17.5%, and lateral lisps
by 13.3%. Despite parental/teacher concern, only 41/109 children had
contact with an SLP. Children who had contact with an SLP were more likely to
be unintelligible to strangers, express distress about their speech, have a
lower PCC and a smaller consonant inventory compared to the group who had not
contacted an SLP.
Conclusions. There
are a significant number of preschool-aged children with SSD who have not had
contact with an SLP. These children have mild-severe SSD and would benefit from
SLP intervention. Integrated SLP services within early childhood communities
would enable earlier identification of SSD and access to intervention to reduce
potential educational and social impacts.
