Reading skills of students with speech sound disorders at three stages of literacy development.

Purpose: The relationship between phonological awareness, overall language, vocabulary, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills to decoding and reading comprehension was examined for students at 3 stages of literacy development (i.e., early elementary school, middle school, and high school).

Narrative ability of children with speech sound disorders and the prediction of later literacy skills.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to examine how children with isolated speech sound disorders (SSDs; n = 20), children with combined SSDs and language impairment (LI; n = 20), and typically developing children (n = 20), ages 3;3 (years;months) to 6;6, differ in narrative ability. The second purpose was to determine if early narrative ability predicts school-age (8-12 years) literacy skills.

Method: This study employed a longitudinal cohort design.

Literacy outcomes of children with early childhood speech sound disorders: impact of endophenotypes.

Purpose: To demonstrate that early childhood speech sound disorders (SSD) and later school-age reading, written expression, and spelling skills are influenced by shared endophenotypes that may be in part genetic.

Method: Children with SSD and their siblings were assessed at early childhood (ages 4-6 years) and followed at school age (7-12 years). The relationship of shared endophenotypes with early childhood SSD and school-age outcomes and the shared genetic influences on these outcomes were examined.

Neural correlates of phonological processing in speech sound disorder: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Speech sound disorders (SSD) are the largest group of communication disorders observed in children. One explanation for these disorders is that children with SSD fail to form stable phonological representations when acquiring the speech sound system of their language due to poor phonological memory (PM). The goal of this study was to examine PM in individuals with histories of SSD employing functional MR imaging (fMRI).

Subtyping Children With Speech Sound Disorders by Endophenotypes.

PURPOSE: The present study examined associations of 5 endophenotypes (i.e., measurable skills that are closely associated with speech sound disorders and are useful in detecting genetic influences on speech sound production), oral motor skills, phonological memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and speeded naming, with 3 clinical criteria for classifying speech sound disorders: severity of speech sound disorders, our previously reported clinical subtypes (speech sound disorders alone, speech sound disorders with language impairment, and childhood apraxia of speech), and the comorbid condition of reading disorders.

Speech and language skills of parents of children with speech sound disorders.

Purpose: This study compared parents with histories of speech sound disorders (SSD) to parents without known histories on measures of speech sound production, phonological processing, language, reading, and spelling. Familial aggregation for speech and language disorders was also examined.

Method: The participants were 147 parents of children with SSD (58 fathers and 89 mothers) who were directly tested and interviewed for family history of disorders.

The genetic bases of speech sound disorders: evidence from spoken and written language.

The purpose of this article is to review recent findings suggesting a genetic susceptibility for speech sound disorders (SSD), the most prevalent communication disorder in early childhood. The importance of genetic studies of SSD and the hypothetical underpinnings of these genetic findings are reviewed, as well as genetic associations of SSD with other language and reading disabilities. The authors propose that many genes contribute to SSD.

Speech sound disorder influenced by a locus in 15q14 region.

Despite a growing body of evidence indicating that speech sound disorder (SSD) has an underlying genetic etiology, researchers have not yet identified specific genes predisposing to this condition. The speech and language deficits associated with SSD are shared with several other disorders, including dyslexia, autism, Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), and Angelman's Syndrome (AS), raising the possibility of gene sharing. Furthermore, we previously demonstrated that dyslexia and SSD share genetic susceptibility loci.

Dimensions of early speech sound disorders: A factor analytic study.

Unlabelled: The goal of this study was to classify children with speech sound disorders (SSD) empirically, using factor analytic techniques. Participants were 3-7-year olds enrolled in speech/language therapy (N = 185). Factor analysis of an extensive battery of speech and language measures provided support for two distinct factors, representing the skill dimensions of articulation/phonology and semantic/syntactic skills.

School-age follow-up of children with childhood apraxia of speech.

Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to examine differences in speech/language and written language skills between children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and children with other speech-sound disorders at school age.

Method: Ten children (7 males and 3 females) who were clinically diagnosed with CAS (CAS group) were followed from the preschool years (ages 4-6) to school age (ages 8-10) and were compared with children with isolated speech-sound disorders (S group; n = 15) and combined speech-sound and language disorders (SL group; n = 14). Assessments included measures of articulation, diadochokinetic rates, language, reading, and spelling.

Family pedigrees of children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech.

Unlabelled: Forty-two children (29 boys and 13 girls), ages 3-10 years, were referred from the caseloads of clinical speech-language pathologists for suspected childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). According to results from tests of speech and oral motor skills, 22 children met criteria for CAS, including a severely limited consonant and vowel repertoire, difficulty sequencing syllables, and inconsistent and unusual errors. Family pedigrees for these children were constructed through parent interviews and direct testing of nuclear family members.

Pleiotropic effects of a chromosome 3 locus on speech-sound disorder and reading.

Speech-sound disorder (SSD) is a complex behavioral disorder characterized by speech-sound production errors associated with deficits in articulation, phonological processes, and cognitive linguistic processes. SSD is prevalent in childhood and is comorbid with disorders of language, spelling, and reading disability, or dyslexia. Previous research suggests that developmental problems in domains associated with speech and language acquisition place a child at risk for dyslexia.