PHONOLOGICALLY DISORDERED CANTONESE-SPEAKING CHILDREN

Speech-disordered children are not a homogeneous group in terms of aet iology, severity, surface error patterns or response to specific treat ment approaches. Previous research has suggested that they fall into s ubgroups that reflect different underlying deficits in the speech-proc essing chain (Dodd, 1993). One way of evaluating this classification o f phonological disorder is by investigating its applicability to langu ages other than English. In this paper we describe the speech error pa tterns of 17 monolingual Cantonese-speaking children consecutively ref erred for assessment of disordered speech. Two had difficulties articu lating specific speech sounds; eight showed a delayed pattern of devel opment, i.e. their errors were appropriate for a younger child acquiri ng phonology normally; five used unusual (non-developmental) phonologi cal rules (as well as some developmental ones); and two showed inconsi stent (i.e. variable) patterns of errors. The possible nature of the d eficits underlying each of these surface error patterns is discussed.