Background: Children's spellings are often scored as correct or incorrect, but other measures may be better predictors of later spelling performance. Method: We examined seven measures of spelling in Reception Year and Year 1 (5-6 years old) as predictors of performance on a standardised spelling test in Year 2 (age 7). Results: Correctness was…

Purpose: Polysyllables, words of 3 or more syllables, represent almost 30% of words used in American English. The purpose of this tutorial is to support speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') assessment and analysis of polysyllables, extending the focus of published assessment tools that focus on sampling and analyzing children's segmental accuracy…

This study assesses the phonological development of four Finnish-speaking children (ages 4;8, 4;9, 4;9 and 5;5) with specific language impairment (SLI) and dyspractic features in speech. The analysis is performed using the phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU) method. Moreover, the children's phonological abilities are evaluated…

Phonological acquisition traditionally has been measured using constructs that focus on segments rather than the whole words. Findings from recent research have suggested whole-word productions be evaluated using measures such as phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU) and the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP). These measures have been…

This article honours Adele Miccio's life work by reflecting on the utility of phonetic transcription. The first section reviews the literature on cases where children whose speech appears to neutralize a contrast in the adult language are found on closer examination to produce a contrast ("covert contrast"). This study presents evidence…

An articulation screening procedure that considered the phonological content of the child's error was compared to a procedure that treated all errors as equally important with 333 preschool children. Predicting eventual therapy placement was more accurate when only selected errors were used. (Author/DB)