Rate, accuracy and consistency: diadochokinetic performance of young, normally developing children

This paper describes the performance of 30 normally developing children in the age range of 3-5 years on silent and spoken diadochokinetic (DDK) tasks . Issues of task design and scoring are explored and the findings are inter preted from a developmental. and psycholinguistic perspective. Rate, accura cy and consistency measures of the children's performance are used to make comparisons both with the adult model presented and with each child's own s peech sound system. The results show that, in general, accuracy and consist ency of response are more sensitive DDK assessment measures for pre-school children than the more traditionally used rate of production. However, in e ach age group, different profiles of performance emerged which can be used for comparison with children with speech difficulties. It is argued that th is normative data is essential for understanding the nature of children's s peech difficulties, interpreting DDK assessment results, and for planning a ppropriate intervention.