Does a Past History of Speech Disorder Predict Literacy Difficulties?

Abstract

Spoken phonological disorder affects 4% of the infant and primary school population. The disorder is associated with behavior disorder, and academic failure primarily due to poor written language, particularly spelling. It has been possible to classify children with spoken disorders into four groups; children with an articulation disorder who cannot produce specific speech sound(s), and three groups of children who can pronounce speech sounds but make errors of omission, substitution or addition. These phonologically disordered children may show error patterns reflecting delayed phonological development, consistent (non-developmental) errors, or inconsistent errors. Children with different patterns of spoken surface errors may have differing underlying deficits which, despite therapy, persist to affect, the acquisition of literacy. Past research suggests that children with a current phonological disorder have problems with spelling (Dodd & Cockerill, 1985). In a pilot study, children with a past history of speech disorder were found to have poor spelling in relation to controls with no previous spoken disorder. The study reported here investigated the spelling and related cognitive abilities of groups of children with past histories of the four types of speech disorder. The results indicated that any type of phonological disorder places children at risk of later reading and spelling difficulties.