Speech-Sound Discrimination Skills as Measured by Reaction Time for Normal and Articulatory Defective Speaking Children

Reaction time measures were obtained from 30 normal speaking children and 30 articulatory defective children on a task which required determining similarities or differences between speech sounds presented in nonsense syllables. The results showed that there was no significant difference between these groups in the time needed to make the discriminations. These results are in opposition to the findings of various authors who have concluded that children with articulation deficits also demonstrate some type of auditory discrimination deficit.