Adolescent Outcomes of Children With Early Speech Sound Disorders With and Without Language Impairment
Publication: American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume 24, Number 2
Pages 150-163
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors determined adolescent speech, language, and literacy outcomes of individuals with histories of early childhood speech sound disorders (SSD) with and without comorbid language impairment (LI) and examined factors associated with these outcomes.
Method
This study used a prospective longitudinal design. Participants with SSD (n = 170), enrolled at early childhood (4–6 years) were followed at adolescence (11–18 years) and were compared to individuals with no histories of speech or language impairment (no SSD; n = 146) on measures of speech, language, and literacy. Comparisons were made between adolescents with early childhood histories of no SSD, SSD only, and SSD plus LI as well as between adolescents with no SSD, resolved SSD, and persistent SSD.
Results
Individuals with early childhood SSD with comorbid LI had poorer outcomes than those with histories of SSD only or no SSD. Poorer language and literacy outcomes in adolescence were associated with multiple factors, including persistent speech sound problems, lower nonverbal intelligence, and lower socioeconomic status. Adolescents with persistent SSD had higher rates of comorbid LI and reading disability than the no SSD and resolved SSD groups.
Conclusion
Risk factors for language and literacy problems in adolescence include an early history of LI, persistent SSD, lower nonverbal cognitive ability, and social disadvantage.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Bird, J., Bishop, D. V. M., & Freeman, N. H (1995). Phonological awareness and literacy development in children with expressive phonological impairments. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 446–462.
Bishop, D. V., & Adams, C. (1990). A prospective study of the relationship between specific language impairment, phonological disorders and reading retardation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 31, 1027–1050.
Bishop, D. V., Price, T. S., Dale, P. S., & Robert, P. (2003). Outcomes of early language delay: II. Etiology of transient and persistent language difficulties. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 561–575.
Campbell, T. F., Dollaghan, C. A., Rockette, H. E., Paradise, J. L., Feldman, H. M., Shriberg, L. D., … Kurs-Lasky, M. (2003). Risk factors for speech delay of unknown origin in 3-year-old children. Child Development, 74, 346–357.
Catts, H. W. (1986). Speech production/phonological deficits in reading-disordered children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 19, 504–508.
Culton, G. L. (1986). Speech disorders among college freshman: A 13-year survey. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 3–7.
Dale, P. S., McMillan, A. J., Hayiou-Thomas, M. E., & Plomin, R. (2014). Illusory recovery: Are recovered children with early language delay at continuing risk? American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23, 437–447.
Dunn, L. M. (2006). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Fourth Edition. Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
Edwards, J., & Lahey, M. (1998). Nonword repetitions of children with specific language impairments: Exploration of some explanations for their inaccuracies. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19, 279–309.
Flax, J. F., Realpe-Bonilla, T., Hirsch, L. S., Brzustowicz, L. M., Bartlett, C. W., & Tallal, P. (2003). Specific language impairment in families: Evidence for co-occurrence with reading impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 530–543.
Fletcher, J. (1977). Fletcher Time-by-Count Test of Diadochokinetic Syllable Rate. Tigard, OR: C.C. Publications.
Flipsen, P. (2002). Longitudinal changes in articulation rate and phonetic phrase length in children with speech delay. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45, 100–110.
Gardner, M. F. (2000). Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test–2000. Novato, CA: Academic Therapy Publications.
Glogowska, M., Roulstone, S., Peters, T. J., & Enderby, P. (2006). Early speech- and language-impaired children: Linguistic, literacy, and social outcomes. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 48, 489–494.
Goldman, R., & Fristoe, M. (1986). The Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation. Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
Goldman, R., & Fristoe, M. (2000). Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation–Second Edition. Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
Harrison, L. J., & Mcleod, S. (2010). Risk and protective factors associated with speech and language impairment in a nationally representative sample of 4- to 5- year-old children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 508–529.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four Factor Index of Social Class. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
Johnson, C. J., Beitchman, J. H., & Brownlie, E. B. (2010). Twenty-year follow-up of children with and without speech-language impairments: Family, educational, occupational, and quality of life outcomes. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19, 51–65.
Khan, L., & Lewis, N. (1986). Khan-Lewis Phonological Analysis. Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
King, R. R., Jones, C., & Laskey, E. (1982). In retrospect: A fifteen-year follow-up report of speech-language disordered children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 13, 24–32.
Larsen, S. C., & Hammill, D. D. (1994). Test of Written Spelling–Third Edition. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Leitao, S., & Fletcher, J. (2004). Literacy outcomes for students with speech impairment: Long-term follow-up. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 39, 245–256.
Lewis, B. A., Freebairn, L. A., Hansen, A. J., Miscimarra, L., Iyengar, S. K., & Taylor, H. G. (2007). Speech and language skills of parents of children with speech sound disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16, 108–118.
Lewis, B. A., Freebairn, L. A., Hansen, A. J., Stein, C. M., Shriberg, L. D., Iyengar, S. K., & Gerry Taylor, H. (2006). Dimensions of early speech sound disorders: A factor analytic study. Journal of Communication Disorders, 39, 139–157.
Lewis, B. A., Freebairn, L. A., & Taylor, H. G. (2000a). Academic outcomes in children with histories of speech sound disorders. Journal of Communication Disorders, 33, 11–30.
Lewis, B. A., Freebairn, L. A., & Taylor, H. G. (2000b). Follow-up of children with early expressive phonology disorders. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 433–444.
Lewis, B. A., Freebairn, L. A., & Taylor, H. G. (2000c). Predicting school-age outcomes for children with histories of speech sound disorders. Journal of Communication Disorders, 33, 11–30.
Lewis, B. A., O'Donnell, B., Freebairn, L. A., & Taylor, H. G. (1998). Spoken language and written expression - Interplay of delays. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 7, 77–84.
Mullen, R., & Schooling, T. (2010). The National Outcomes Measurement System for Pediatric Speech-Language Pathology. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 44–60.
Nathan, L., Stackhouse, J., Goulandris, N., & Snowling, M. J. (2004). Educational consequences of developmental speech disorder: Key stage I national curriculum assessment results in English and mathematics. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 173–186.
Newcomer, P. L., & Hammill, D. D. (1997). Test of Language Development–Primary: Third Edition. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Peckham, C. S. (1973). Speech deficits in a national sample of children aged 7 years. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 8, 2–8.
Pennington, B. F., & Bishop, D. V. (2009). Relations among speech, language, and reading disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 283–306.
Peter, B., Button, L., Stoel-Gammon, C., Chapman, K., & Raskind, W. H. (2013). Deficits in sequential processing in motor and linguistic tasks in a multigenerational family with childhood apraxia of speech. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. Advance online publication. doi:10.3109/02699206.2012.736011
Peterson, R. L., Pennington, B. F., Shriberg, L. D., & Boada, R. (2009). What influences literacy outcome in children with speech sound disorder? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 1175–1188.
Preston, J. L., & Edwards, M. L. (2007). Phonological processing skills of adolescents with residual speech sound errors. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38, 297–308.
Preston, J. L., Hull, M., & Edwards, M. L. (2013). Preschool speech error patterns predict articulation and phonological awareness outcomes in children with histories of speech sound disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22, 173–184.
Raitano, N. A., Pennington, B. F., Tunick, R. A., Boada, R., & Shriberg, L. D. (2004). Pre-literacy skills of subgroups of children with speech sound disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 821–835.
Roulstone, S., Miller, L. L., Wren, Y., & Peters, T. J. (2009). The natural history of speech impairment of 8-year-old children in the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children: Error rates at 2 and 5 years. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11, 381–391.
Schussler, K. F., & Wren, Y. (2012, November). Opportunities for change in children with persistent speech sound disorders. Paper presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA.
Semel, E., Wiig, E. H., & Secord, W. (1995). Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Shriberg, L. D. (2010). Childhood speech sound disorders: From postbehaviorism to the post genomic era. In Paul, R., & Flipsen, P. (Eds.), Speech sound disorders in children (pp. 1–33). San Diego, CA: Plural.
Shriberg, L. D. (1993). Four new prosody-voice measures for genetic research and other studies in developmental phonological disorders. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 105–140.
Shriberg, L. D., & Kent, R. D. (2003). Clinical phonetics (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Shriberg, L. D., Tomblin, J. B., & McSweeny, J. L. (1999). Prevalence of speech delay in 6-year-old children and comorbidity with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42, 1461–1481.
Silva, P. A., McGee, R., & Williams, S. (1982). The predictive significance of slow walking and slow talking: A report from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Child Development Study. British Journal of Disordered Communication, 17, 133–139.
Skebo, C. M., Lewis, B. A., Freebairn, L. A., Avrich, A. A., & Stein, C. M. (2013). Predictors of reading skills at elementary, middle, and high school for children with and without speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 44, 360–373.
Snowling, M. J. (1981). Phonemic deficits in developmental dyslexia. Psychological Research, 43, 219–234.
Tomblin, J. B., Records, N. L., Buckwalter, P., Zhang, X., Smith, E., & O'Brien, M. (1997). Prevalence of specific language impairment in kindergarten children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40, 1245–1260.
Wechsler, D. (1989). Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Revised. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Wechsler, D. (1991). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Wechsler, D. (1992). Wechsler Individual Achievement Test. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Wechsler, D. (2008). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition. San Antonio, TX: Pearson.
Wiig, E. H., Secord, W., & Semel, E. (1992). Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Preschool. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Woodcock, R. (1987). Woodcock Reading Mastery Test–Revised. Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
Wren, Y. E., Miller, L. L., Peters, T., Emond, A., & Roulstone, S. E. (2014a). Prevalence and concurrent characteristics of children with persistent speech sound disorders at eight-years-old: Findings from a population cohort study. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Wren, Y. E., Miller, L. L., Peters, T., Emond, A., & Roulstone, S. E. (2014b). Risk factors associated with persistent speech sound disorders at eight-years-old: Findings from a populaiton cohort study. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Wren, Y. E., Roulstone, S. E., & Miller, L. L. (2012). Distinguishing groups of children with persistent speech disorder: Findings from a prospective population study. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 37(1), 1–10.
Young, A. R., Beitchman, J. H., Johnson, C., Douglas, L., Atkinson, L., Escobar, M., & Wilson, B. (2002). Young adult academic outcomes in a longitudinal sample of early identified language impaired and control children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 635–645.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume 24 • Number 2 • May 2015
Pages: 150-163
PubMed: 25569242
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
History
- Received: Oct 23, 2014
- Revised: Oct 23, 2014
- Accepted: Oct 27, 2014
- Published in issue: May 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Metrics
View all metricsCitations
Download article citation data for:
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.
Citing Literature
- Mary L. Leppert, Speech and language disorders, Capute and Accardo' s Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in Infancy and Childhood, 10.1016/B978-0-12-824060-1.00029-8, (537-546), (2025).
- Simge Şen, Maral Yeşilyurt, Erken Çocukluk Döneminde Konuşma Sesi Bozukluğu Tanısı Almış Çocukların Ebeveynlerinin Kaygı Düzeylerinin İncelenmesi, Dil, Konuşma ve Yutma Araştırmaları Dergisi, 10.58563/dkyad-2024.71.3, 7, 1, (53-83), (2024).
- Ülkü Gümüş, Erdal Görkem Gavcar, Hozan Saatçıoğlu, Fethiye Kılıçaslan, Şanlıurfa İlinde Bir Eğitim Araştırma Hastanesine Çocuklar İçin Özel Gereksinim Raporu (ÇÖZGER) Amacıyla Başvuran Olguların Sosyodemografik ve Klinik Özellikleri, Harran Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi, 10.35440/hutfd.1495555, 21, 2, (298-305), (2024).
- Tahira Yasmin, Aatika Sadia, Laraib Nadeem, Muhammad Asim Raza Basra, Mabel L. Rice, Muhammad Hashim Raza, Whole Genome Analysis in Consanguineous Families Reveals New Loci for Speech Sound Disorder (SSD), Genes, 10.3390/genes15081069, 15, 8, (1069), (2024).
- Meysam Amidfar, Linguistic, Metalinguistic and Psychiatric Characteristics of Children with Speech Sound Disorder, Current Psychiatry Research and Reviews, 10.2174/2666082219666230828163404, 20, 4, (323-338), (2024).
- Lucy Rodgers, Nicola Botting, Sam Harding, Martin Cartwright, Meriem Amer-El-khedoud, Rosalind Herman, Shared characteristics of intervention techniques for oral vocabulary and speech comprehensibility in preschool children with co-occurring features of developmental language disorder and speech sound disorder: a systematic review with narrative synthesis, BMJ Open, 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081571, 14, 8, (e081571), (2024).
- Nina R. Benway, Jonathan L. Preston, Asif Salekin, Elaine Hitchcock, Tara McAllister, Evaluating acoustic representations and normalization for rhoticity classification in children with speech sound disorders, JASA Express Letters, 10.1121/10.0024632, 4, 2, (2024).
- Anouk Scheffer, Brigitta Keij, Britt Hakvoort, Esther Ottow‐Henning, Ellen Gerrits, Frank Wijnen, Speech sound development of young Dutch children with a developmental language disorder: A complex matter, International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 10.1111/1460-6984.13109, 59, 6, (2706-2722), (2024).
- Sarah Tzy Yun Chou, Rebecca Sutherland, Patricia McCabe, A systematic scoping review of the literacy skills of children with childhood apraxia of speech: Recommendations for best practice and further research, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10.1080/17549507.2024.2363935, 26, 3, (346-366), (2024).
- Helene Søgaard Andersen, Line Dahl Jørgensen, Casper Wilstrup, Elisabeth Willadsen, Multiple oppositions intervention: effective phonological treatment of two children with cleft lip and palate and severe speech sound disorder, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 10.1080/02699206.2024.2339308, (1-22), (2024).
- See more
View Options
Sign In Options
ASHA member? If so, log in with your ASHA website credentials for full access.
Member Login