Centre for Clinical and Nutritional Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of the Punjab, New Campus, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Department of Education, Govt. Graduate College for Women, Alipurchatha, Gujranwala, Pakistan; Department of Education, Virtual University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2022 Nov;231:103777. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103777. Epub 2022 Nov 7.
Emerging evidence suggests that impaired speech may be related to reduced working memory (WM). The current study aimed to validate and compare the influence of articulation, short-term memory (STM), WM, and receptive vocabulary abilities of Pakistani children with speech sound disorder (SSD; N = 50) versus typically developing (TD; N = 30) children aged 7-13 years. Assessments included the Test for Assessment of Articulation and Phonology in Urdu (TAAPU), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4, translated to Urdu (U-PPVT-4), and Digit Memory Test (DMT) used to determine speech articulation, receptive vocabulary, and memory abilities respectively. The percentage correct consonants (PCC) score was used to divide the SSD group further into SSD severity groups. The TD and SSD groups significantly differed in performance on all tasks (p < 0.05). Moreover, the SSD severity groups showed significant differences (p < 0.0001) in performance on different components of TAAPU (total errors and substitution errors) and DMT tasks. However, the SSD severity groups did not show significant differences in performance on the U-PPVT-4. Correlational analyses indicate statistically significant correlations of PCC with STM, WM, and receptive vocabulary. Regression analyses suggested that both WM and STM contribute to speech intelligibility in children with SSD. Our findings in Urdu-speaking children support previous results in English-speaking children suggesting the articulation skills, receptive vocabulary, STM, and WM were less developed in children with SSD than in TD children.
新的证据表明，言语障碍可能与工作记忆（WM）下降有关。本研究旨在验证并比较巴基斯坦患有语音障碍（SSD；N=50）和正常发育（TD；N=30）儿童的发音、短期记忆（STM）、WM 和接受性词汇能力的影响。年龄在 7-13 岁之间。评估包括乌尔都语语音和音位评估测试（TAAPU）、Peabody 图片词汇测验-4（翻译成乌尔都语的 U-PPVT-4）和数字记忆测验（DMT），分别用于确定言语发音、接受性词汇和记忆能力。正确辅音百分比（PCC）得分用于将 SSD 组进一步分为 SSD 严重程度组。TD 和 SSD 组在所有任务上的表现均有显著差异（p<0.05）。此外，SSD 严重程度组在 TAAPU 的不同组件（总错误和替代错误）和 DMT 任务上的表现存在显著差异（p<0.0001）。然而，SSD 严重程度组在 U-PPVT-4 上的表现没有显著差异。相关分析表明 PCC 与 STM、WM 和接受性词汇之间存在显著相关性。回归分析表明 WM 和 STM 均有助于 SSD 儿童的言语清晰度。我们在讲乌尔都语的儿童中的发现支持了在讲英语的儿童中的先前结果，表明 SSD 儿童的发音技能、接受性词汇、STM 和 WM 不如 TD 儿童发达。
