Speech production abilities of 4- to 5-year-old children with and without a history of late talking: The tricky tyrannosaurus

<i>Purpose:</i> Research on the speech production abilities of children with a history of late talking (HLT) is limited. We compared 4- to 5-year-old children with and without a HLT on a routine speech assessment and a single-word polysyllable assessment. <i>Method:</i> The two speech assessments were administered to 13 children with a HLT (4;4–5;9 years) and 11 children with a history of typical development (HTD) (4;1–5;10 years). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. <i>Result:</i> The HLT group had significantly poorer speech accuracy than the HTD group on both the routine speech and polysyllable assessments. The HLT group also showed a significantly higher percentage occurrence of consonant omissions on both speech assessments compared to the HTD group. Descriptive analysis of participants’ polysyllable productions indicated that the HLT group showed a higher percentage occurrence of a range of error types compared to the HTD group. <i>Conclusion:</i> By 4–5 years of age, children who were late to talk had speech production abilities that were significantly poorer than their peers who were not late to talk, suggesting continued underlying differences.

研究目的：有关有晚说话史（History of Late Talking, HLT）儿童的言语产出能力的相关研究仍较为匮乏。本研究针对4至5岁的有晚说话史儿童与典型发育史（History of Typical Development, HTD）儿童，对比分析其在常规言语评估与多音节单词语评估中的表现。
研究方法：本研究共纳入13名有晚说话史的儿童（年龄范围为4岁4个月至5岁9个月），以及11名有典型发育史的儿童（年龄范围为4岁1个月至5岁10个月），并对两组儿童施测上述两项言语评估。研究采用描述性统计与推断性统计方法对采集的数据进行分析。
研究结果：在常规言语评估与多音节评估中，晚说话史组儿童的言语准确率均显著低于典型发育史组。同时，晚说话史组儿童在两项评估中出现辅音遗漏的比例均显著高于典型发育史组。对参与者多音节词语产出的描述性分析进一步显示，晚说话史组儿童在各类言语错误类型的出现比例上均显著高于典型发育史组。
研究结论：至4至5岁年龄段，曾有晚说话史的儿童其言语产出能力仍显著落后于同龄典型发育儿童，提示其言语发育仍存在潜在的持续性差异。