Self and Mutual Speech Comprehension by Deviant- and Normal-Speaking Children

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine whether deviant-speaking children can understand their own speech productions when these productions are presented to them from an external source (tape recorder). Two groups of children with normal and deviant speech attempted to comprehend their own and one another’s recorded repetitions of two matched lists of imperative sentences. Although there was a significant main effect for comprehension of high- and low-intelligibility sentences, a significant main effect for the groups' comprehension performances was not found. The results suggested that the deviant-speaking children were perceptually oriented to the standard code of the speech community rather than to their own deviant speech codes. Deficits in speech production are discussed in terms of a reduction theory of telegraphic speech. Deviant-speaking children may reduce complexity of speech output through the application of phonetic reduction rules.