"Developmental
Phonological Disorders, also known as phonological disability or phonological
disorders, are a group of language disorders that affect children’s
ability to develop easily understood speech by the time they are four
years old, and, in some cases, their ability to learn to read and
spell. Therefore, Phonological disorders involve a difficulty in learning
and organizing all the sounds needed for clear speech, reading and
spelling". (Bowen,
C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide
for families and teachers. Melbourne: The Australian Council for Educational
Research Ltd.)
Individuals with this Communication
Disorder of childhood demonstrate impairment in their ability to produce
sounds as expected for their developmental level.
Failure to use developmentally expected speech sounds that are appropriate
for age and dialect (e.g., errors in sound production, use,
representation, or organization such as, but not limited to, substitutions
of one sound for another [use of /t/ for target /k/ sound] or omissions
of sounds such as final consonants).
The difficulties in
speech sound production interfere with academic or occupational achievement
or with social communication.
"Some children
with developmental phonological disorders have other speech and language
difficulties such as immature grammar and syntax, stuttering or word-retrieval
difficulties. However, many of them just have a 'pure' developmental
phonological disorder, involving:
A problem with speech clarity in the preschool years, with no subsequent
reading and spelling problems, or
A problem with speech clarity in the pre-school years, and, in the
early school years, difficulty learning to read, and difficulties
with reading comprehension, or
Speech and reading problems as described above, plus difficulty with
spelling, or
Speech and spelling problems (i.e., no reading difficulties), or
Speech clarity problems in the pre-school years, and difficulties
with written expression in primary school." (Bowen,
C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide
for families and teachers. Melbourne: The Australian Council for Educational
Research Ltd.)
Associated
Features:
Expressive
Language Disorder
Mixed Receptive-Expressive
Language Disorder
Differential
Diagnosis:
Some disorders have similar symptoms. The clinician, therefore, in
his diagnostic attempt, has to differentiate against the following
disorders which need to be ruled out to establish a precise diagnosis.
Mental
Retardation
Cause:
The cause of phonological
disorder in children is largley unknown. It has been suggested that
this disorder has a genetic component due to the large proportion
of children who have relatives with some type of similar disorder.
However there is no available data to support this observations.
Some researchers
have indicated that the disorder is more common in boys and affects
approximately 10% of children below eight years old and 5% of those
above eight years old have this disorder. By age 17 the incidence
of phonological disorder reduces to 0.5 %. Again there is no reliable
data to support these observations.
"Developmental
phonological disorders may occur in conjunction with other communication
disorders such as stuttering,
specific language impairment (SLI), or developmental apraxia of speech."
(Bowen,
C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide
for families and teachers. Melbourne: The Australian Council for Educational
Research Ltd.)
Treatment:
"No matter what combination
of difficulties a child with a developmental phonological disorder
has, appropriate speech-language pathology treatment is usually successful
in eliminating or at the very least, reducing the problem."
(Bowen,
C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide
for families and teachers. Melbourne: The Australian Council for Educational
Research Ltd.)
