A comparison of single words and conversational speech in phonological evaluation.

Full Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of the current study was to compare conversational speech samples with single-word samples that were partially tailored to the participants' individual phonological profiles, using aspects of nonlinear phonological frameworks as a basis for evaluation. METHOD: There were 20 participants in the study, ranging in age from 3;0 to 10;5 (years;months). The Computerized Articulation and Phonology Evaluation System (J. J. Masterson & B. Bernhardt, 2001) was used to elicit single-word productions. RESULTS: Both group and individual comparisons indicated very few differences in accuracy or treatment ramifications. The time required to elicit and transcribe the conversational samples was typically 3 times greater than the time required for the single-word task. The single-word task elicited more of the English-language targets. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that a single-word task tailored to some extent to the client's phonological system gives sufficient and representative information for phonological evaluation. A brief conversational sample remains useful for examining prosody, intelligibility, and other aspects of language, and as a check on the representativeness of the single-word sample.

Author information

Author/s: Masterson, Julie J (JJ); Bernhardt, Barbara H (BH); Hofheinz, Monica K (MK);

Affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Missouri State University, Springfield 65897, USA. juliemasterson(-atsign-)missouristate.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: American journal of speech-language pathology / American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (Am J Speech Lang Pathol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-Aug; vol 14 (issue 3) : pp 229-41

Dates: Created 2005/10/18; Completed 2006/01/18; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16229674, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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