Speech Error Subtypes and Their Association With Phonological Awareness in School-Aged Children and Young Adults

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceptual clinical speech features and phonological awareness (PA) skills in school-aged children and young adults with persistent speech sound disorder (SSD). Method: This study retrospectively analyzed data from 103 individuals aged 7–24 years with persistent SSDs. Speech samples were narrowly transcribed and used to calculate the presence of several clinical speech features. Participants' scores for each speech feature were converted to z scores and entered as variables into an exploratory factor analysis. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between the factors and PA skills, as measured by the Phonological Awareness subtests of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing–Second Edition. Results: The exploratory factor analysis supported a two-factor model: Factor 1 (motor speech–related errors) and Factor 2 (phonological errors). When controlling for age, phonological errors significantly predicted PA skills, while motor speech–related errors and distortions did not uniquely contribute to the variance in PA. The model capturing motor speech errors and phonological errors explained 37.7% of the variance in PA. Conclusions: Persistent phonological errors are strong predictors of PA, highlighting their continued impact on literacy-related skills in school-aged children and young adults with SSD. These results reinforce the importance of addressing phonological errors in clinical assessments and interventions in this population. Further research is needed to explore other factors that contribute to PA and literacy outcomes.