Reliability of listener transcriptions of compensatory articulations

Objective: This study examined the ability of speech-language pathologists to transcribe compensatory articulation errors, Design: Speech-language pathologists phonetically transcribed audiorecordin gs of 130 monosyllabic words, 70 of which contained compensatory articulati ons. Participants: The participants for this study were two groups of 10 speech- language pathologists. Group I included speech-language pathologists who we re experienced in evaluating children with cleft palate, and group II speec h-language pathologists were not, Results: Marked variability was evident across listeners, with percentages of agreement ranging from 19 to 71 (mean agreement = 41%), The experienced listeners performed significantly better on the transcription task than the inexperienced listeners, but poor interjudge agreement was evident across both groups, Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that speech-language patholo gists may differ in their understanding of the auditory perceptual characte ristics of compensatory articulations. The results underscore the need for increased training and standardization of transcription procedures.