Pediatric speech intelligibility test. I. Generation of test materials.

Normal children between 3 and 7 years of age generated word and sentence messages for use in a new speech intelligibility test. Word materials did not differ as a function of chronological age, vocabulary skills, or receptive language ability. Sentence materials, however, did reflect differences in chronological age, vocabulary skills, and receptive language skills. Older children, approximately 5-10 years, responded with complete, adult-like sentences. Younger children, approximately 3-10 years, responded with either a proform substituted for the noun phrase subject of a sentence or by omitting the auxiliary verb "be" in forming the present progressive verb tense of the sentence. To represent the differences in the children's responses, two different types of test sentences were formed. In one construction, the test sentence is composed of (noun phrase/verb-ing/noun phrase), preceded by the carrier phrase "show me", e.g., "Show me a bear brushing his teeth". In the other construction, the test sentence is composed of (noun phrase/auxiliary verb-ing/noun phrase), e.g., "A bear is brushing his teeth". The two different sentence forms are proposed as a means of equating differences in normal language development among children.