The Effects of Syllable Releasing and Arresting Positions on the Correct Articulation of Five Selected Phonemes

The purposes of this study were (1) To investigate the effects of syllable releasing and arresting positions on correct /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/ and /d₃/ productions by articulatory defective children; and (2) to investigate the effects of varying phonetic contexts on correct productions of the five phonemes in syllable releasing and arresting positions by articulatory defective children.

Forty children with defective articulation were selected as subjects in this study and met the following criteria: normal hearing, normal intelligence, no significant deviations in the structure and/or function of the oral mechanism, and defective articulation. The speech stimuli used in this study were 34 different phonemes selected from the McDonald Picture Deep Test of Articulation; 17 items in which the phoneme (/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/ or /d₃/) occurred in a syllable releasing position. After the child had practiced naming parts of demonstration pictures, the phonemes were deep tested. All responses were judged as correct or incorrect by the investigator at the times of testing.

From the results of this study, the following conclusions can be made:

1. Children with articulatory defects produce significantly more correct /tʃ/ responses in the syllable releasing position and they produced significantly more correct /d₃/ responses i the syllable arresting position.

2. Although children with articulatory defects produced on the average more correct /ʃ/ responses in the syllable releasing position than in the syllable arresting positions, the difference was not significant.

3. Although children with articulatory defects produced on the average more correct /s/ and /z/ responses in the syllable arresting position than in the syllable releasing position, the difference was not significant.

4. Variability in correct phoneme production in articulatory defective children differs for each of the phonemes. That is, more variability in /s/, /z/ and /d₃/ occurred in this study and less variability occurred in the /ʃ/ and /tʃ/.

5. Different phonetic contexts appear to facilitate correct phoneme production in the syllable releasing position and in the syllable arresting position.

6. Further research is needed to provide more data on the effects of syllable positions and phonetic contexts on the responses of articulatory defective children.