An item analysis of Australian English words for an articulation and phonological test for children aged 2 to 7 years

Item analysis information is rarely given for English tests of children's a rticulation and phonology. Therefore, there is little information about the sensitivity and specificity measures of these tests. Item difficulty and i tem discrimination scores were derived for 199 words that were varied for p honotactic shape, syllable numbers and stress. Fifty-nine normally speaking children and 40 children with speech impairments in the age range of 2-9 y ears named pictures depicting the above words. Most words had satisfactory item difficulty scores indicating ease of naming. The words that best diffe rentiated between children with and without speech impairment were monosyll abic words containing word-initial and/or word-final clusters and polysylla bic words, that is, words of three or more syllables. Disyllabic and polysy llabic words beginning with a weak syllable also seemed to be highly discri minating. Monosyllabic words with a CV or CVC shape that contained the earl ier developing sounds had unacceptable measures of item discrimination. It is recommended that the use of tests that contain a preponderance of monosy llabic words with a CVC shape and the normative data derived from them be c ritically reviewed, especially for children aged four years and older.