Acoustic Analysis of Word and Segment Duration in Children With Speech Sound Disorder

Abstract

Abstract The present study sought to investigate word and segment duration and variability in four preschool-aged children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and four control children with typical development. Group comparisons revealed that the children in the SSD group produced significantly longer word and vowel durations than their peers. No group differences were found for any of the variability measures. The results are suggestive of delayed neuromotor maturation in the children in the SSD group. The findings are interpreted as lending support to the biological theory of phonological development (Kent, 1992), which suggests motor involvement in speech development in children.