Content area
Abstract
This study examined the relationships among speech sound perception, speech sound production, and phonological spelling relative to seven phonemes in 15 pairs of 2nd grade children. Each pair consisted of one typically developing child and one child with speech sound disorder who presented at least one fricative, affricate, and/or liquid error. The pairs were matched for gender, nonverbal reasoning, and level of parent education.
Speech sound perception was assessed with a modification of the Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System, a computer program which assesses speech identification of phonemes. White noise and reverberation were introduced into the stimuli so listening conditions would resemble those in typical classrooms.
Children's speech sound production skill was determined by Percent of Consonants Correct-Revised while repeating multisyllabic words and pseudowords. Phonological spelling was assessed by comparing the phonological skeleton of 84 one syllable pseudowords to the child's orthographic representation. Pseudowords were controlled for morpheme length, orthographic legality, vowel distribution, grapheme length, number of phonemes, position of phoneme, number of target singletons and clusters, frequency of nontarget consonants, and number of phonological neighbors.
Results revealed significant differences in speech sound perception between typical and SSD children. Speech sound perception of typical children showed a small but significant relationship to phonological spelling, whereas children with SSD demonstrated a moderate relationship. The type of relationship between speech sound perception and phonological spelling could not be determined for typical children, but appeared quadratic for children with SSD. Speech sound repetition accuracy of typical children had a modest linear relationship to phonological spelling, whereas children with SSD demonstrated a small linear relationship. There was no significant relationship between speech sound perception and speech sound repetition accuracy for children with SSD.
These results provide partial support for the Dual Route Model of Spelling and the Motor Theory of Speech Perception. In addition, these findings imply that spelling errors in 2nd grade children may result, in part, from poor speech sound perception and/or poor speech sound production.
