Anticipatory Coarticulation in Typically Developing Children and in Children with Speech Disorders

Purpose: To assess the differences in anticipatory coarticulation in adults, typically developing children, and children with speech sound disorders, to address whether children develop smaller speech motor plans from larger speech motor plants, and to determine whether children with speech sound disorders exhibit abnormal coarticulation. Method: Speech samples from 10 adult women, 8 typically-developing children (aged 5 to 11 years), and 6 speech sound disordered children. Nine CVC nonwords were elicited using combinations of /s/, /j/, /i/, and /u/. Results: Adults exhibited whole utterance modifications. Younger children appeared to exhibit less coarticulation than adults. Children with speech sound disorders had idiosyncratic findings. Conclusions: These preliminary data support the hypothesis that children start with smaller units. This implies that children over time develop greater coarticulation. The data also showed that children with speech sound disorders have idiosyncratic coarticulation. Clearer patters and stronger conclusions may emerge with a larger sample size