Language Abilities of Articulatory-Disordered School Children With Multiple or Residual Errors

Abstract

The primary question addressed by this study was whether or not there are two distinct articulatory subgroups (Residual Error and Multiple Error groups) that perform differently from each other and a control group with respect to language measures across a wide age range. A total of 144 subjects were selected from articulation test data on nearly 13,000 children for whom tape-recorded language samples were available. Twelve children in each of four grades (1, 3, 5, and 7) were chosen for each of three groups: Control (no articulation errors), Residual Error (mean of nearly five articulation errors, primarily on /r/, /1/, and /s/), and Multiple Error (mean of more than 15 errors). The articulation errors of the two articulatory defective groups were distributed differently with respect to type and position of errors. Mean language structural scores for completeness and complexity were substantially lower for the Multiple Error group than the Residual Error and Control groups. Scores for length of utterances were not significantly different. The Residual Error and Control groups were similar in mean scores for these language structure measures. The total number of language errors reduced progressively from Multiple Error to Residual Error to Control groups. Language structural and error scores improved from grades 1 through 7 but not in a consistently progressive developmenttal pattern.