A Study of the Effects of Syllable Releasing and Arresting Function on the Correct Articulation of /s/ by Normal and Articulatory Defective Children

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to investigate the effects of syllable releasing and arresting function on correct /s/ productions by normal and articulatory defective children; and (2) to investigate the effects of different phonetic environments on correct /s/ productions in syllable releasing and arresting positions by normal and articulatory defective children.

Two groups of five-year-old children, 15 with normal articulation and 15 with defective articulation, were selected as subjects in this study and met the following criteria: normal hearing, normal intelligence, no significant deviation in the structure and/or function of the oral mechanism, and no more than one language (English) spoken in the home. Defective articulation was defined as a score below minus one standard deviation on the 50-item Templin-Darley Screening Test of Articulation while normal articulation was defined as a score above minus one standard deviation on this test.

The speech stimuli were 32 different phonetic context items selected from the McDonald Picture Deep Test of Articulation for the /s/; 16 in which the /s/ occurred in a syllable releasing position and 16 in which the /s/ occurred in a syllable arresting position. After the examiner demonstrated to the subject how to name pairs of pictures without pausing between them and the child had practiced naming pairs of pictures in this manner, the /s/ phoneme was depp tested with the 32 selected context items for a total of 960 responses. All responses were judged as correct or incorrect by the examiner at the time of testing.

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

1. There is no significant difference between syllable releasing and arresting positions in the number of correct /s/ productions made by five-year-old children with normal articulation.

2. There are significant differences between syllable releasing and arresting positions in the number of correct /s/ productions made by five-year-old articulatory defective children. Specifically, articulatory defective children correctly produce the /s/ more often when /s/ functions to arrest the syllable than when /s/ functions to release the syllable. Also, these differences vary as a function of the particular phonetic context in which the /s/ occurs.

3. Children with normal articulation make significantly more correct /s/ productions in the syllable releasing position than do articulatory defective children.

4. Children with normal articulation make significantly more correct /s/ productions in the syllable arresting position than do articulatory defective children.

5. There is substantial individual variability in the /s/ responses of articulatory defective children.

6. Further research is indicated to provide more data on the effects of syllable releasing and arresting positions on the articulatory responses of normal and articulatory defective children.