Developmental Phonological Error Patterns In Sentence-Level Tests For Children Aged 3-6 Years Old

Objectives: Previous studies of phonological error patterns have focused on either word or spontaneous speech levels, and have had a limited number of samples. Based on a sentence-level phonological error patterns test performed on a large sample of children, this paper compares the incidence rates of error patterns by age group and identifies age-appropriate error patterns. Methods: Speech samples of 437 children, aged between 3;0 and 6;11 years old, selected throughout Korea, were collected through the sentence-level test of the UTAP2 (Urimal Test of Articulation & Phonology 2nd ed.). After dividing the children into 8 age groups, the incidence rates of error patterns among age groups were presented. Then, by analyzing the error patterns shown in at least 10% of the children in the same age group, age-appropriate error patterns were identified. Results: The incidence rates of phonological error patterns for fricatives, liquid, and word-medial coda were the highest. Velar fronting and tensing appeared up to age 3;5, word-final coda deletion appeared up to age 3;11, liquid deletion and stopping of fricatives appeared up to 5;5 years old, and the others-gliding, affricative stopping, deletion & assimilation of word-medial coda appeared up to age 4;11, all of which were age-appropriate. Conclusion: The result of this study was compared with those of previous studies under different contexts (word-level and spontaneous conversational speech level). It is meaningful in that the study established a classification system of Korean developmental error patterns for speech sound disorders, and identified age-appropriate error patterns.