A longitudinal study of the phonological organisation of novel word forms in children with developmental language disorder.
Sara Benham, Lisa Goffman
PMID 34565237WHAT IT FOUND
Children with DLD persistently struggle to organise novel sound sequences into stable patterns over two years, even as their basic sound accuracy improves.
Unlike typical peers, their speech variability does not converge with norms, suggesting sequencing deficits are a core, lasting feature of the disorder.
Key findings
01Children with DLD produced more syllable variants and connections, and showed less stable production patterns than their typical peers at all three timepoints.
02While both groups improved over time, children with DLD never converged with their typical peers in terms of sound accuracy or network stability.
03For children with DLD, standard sound accuracy scores did not correlate with measures of sound sequencing stability, indicating these are separate deficits.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (13 children with DLD). The children with DLD were part of a summer therapy programme, though the intervention did not focus on word form or grammatical goals. The study was conducted in the US with monolingual English speakers, so findings may not generalise to other languages.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that improving phonetic accuracy means the underlying sequencing deficit is resolving. In this study, children with DLD improved in accuracy but still showed persistent, disorganised sound sequencing that did not match their typical peers, and these two measures were not correlated.