Measuring word complexity in speech screening : single-word sampling to identify phonological delay/disorder in preschool children

Children’s speech sound development is assessed by comparing speech production to typical development of speech sounds based on a child’s age and developmental profile. One widely-used method of sampling is to elicit a single word sample along with connected speech. Words that are produced spontaneously rather than imitated may give a more accurate indication of a child’s speech development. A published word complexity measure can be used to score later-developing speech sounds and more complex word patterns. There is a need for a screening word list that is quick to administer and reliably differentiates children with typically developing speech from children with patterns of delayed/disordered speech. The aim was to identify a short word list based on word complexity which could be spontaneously named by most typically developing children aged 3;00 to 5;05 years. One hundred and five children between 3;00 and 5;05 years old from three local authority nursery schools took part in the study. Items from a published speech assessment were modified and extended to include a range of phonemic targets in different word positions in 78 monosyllabic and polysyllabic words. The 78 words were ranked both by phonemic/phonetic complexity as measured by word complexity and by ease of spontaneous production. The 10 most complex words (hereafter the Triage 10) were named spontaneously by more than 90% of the children. There was no significant difference between the complexity measures for 5 identified age groups when the data were examined in 6 month groups. A qualitative analysis revealed 8 children with profiles of phonological delay or disorder. When these children were considered separately, there was a statistically significant difference (p