Observation is a valid way of assessing common variables in typical babbling and identifies infants who need further support.

AIM

It is important to identify speech and language difficulties in children as early as possible. This study investigated the validity of observing babbling structure and consonant articulation.

METHODS

We focused on the language capabilities of children, with and without cleft palates, at 12 months of age (n = 29) and 18 months of age (n = 38), comparing observations made by speech and language pathologists on babbling structure and consonant articulation to audio recordings phonetically transcribed by experts blinded to the aim of the study. Descriptive cross-tabs, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were analysed to investigate the validity of agreement between the methods.

RESULTS

We found high mean agreement between the two methods (94%) and within the observation (100%) and transcription (88.5%) teams when it came to canonical babbling, high-pressure/oral stop consonants and anterior placement of bilabial and dental/alveolar consonants. The observations had high specificity and negative predictive values (0.90-1) at both ages, with low to moderate sensitivity (0-0.86). However, there was low agreement, between and within the groups, on the number of consonant types and the unproven predictive variable glottal place of articulation.

CONCLUSION

Previously suggested predictive measures of babbling were shown to be valid and observation is a reliable method of identifying children who need further support.