ABSTRACT
The hallmark characteristic of children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) is a delay in speech sound production characterized by signifi cantly more errors in production than same-aged peers (Gierut, 1998). SSD refers to a variety of disorders that can affect sound development. Examples of SSD include phonological disorders (diffi culty learning the sounds of language), motor speech disorders (diffi culty physically producing the sounds of the language), structural disorders (e.g., diffi culty learning speech due to a cleft or gap in the palate) and sensory-based disorders (e.g., diffi culty learning speech due to hearing impairment). In this chapter, we focus on children with developmental phonological disorders (DPDs). In these children, delays in sound production occur in the absence of any obvious motor, structural, sensory, or neurologic cause and in the context of normal hearing and nonverbal intelligence. In contrast, the language skills of children with DPD – beyond phonology – are open to debate. For example, comorbidity of language impairment is estimated at 11-15% at 6 years of age (Shriberg, Tomblin, & McSweeny, 1999) but much higher at 40-60% for preschool children with DPD (Shriberg & Austin, 1998). Likewise, comorbidity with reading impairment is estimated at 30% (Pennington, 2006). Thus, at least some children with DPD have broader defi cits that affect other aspects of language, including the ability to learn the mapping between phonology and orthography.
