Voice onset time patterns of /t/ and /k/ in bilingual Saudi children with typical development and suspected speech disorders

PURPOSE: To examine voice onset time (VOT) for the t-k contrast in bilingual Saudi Arabic and English speakers, comparing typically developing (TD) children and those suspected of speech sound disorders (sSSD). METHOD: In a cross-sectional observational study, single-word productions of initial /t/ and /k/ were elicited from 88 children aged 3;0-9;11 (48 TD, 40 sSSD). VOT was measured acoustically and analysed by language, consonant, group, and age. RESULTS: In TD children, VOT was longer and more variable in English than Arabic, with a significant cross-language difference for /k/ only. Age correlated with Arabic /k/ VOT and trended for English /t/. In sSSD children, VOT was longer and more variable in Arabic, with significant /t/-/k/ differences. CONCLUSION: The /t/-/k/ contrast revealed language- and group-specific VOT patterns, suggesting SSD may affect voicing timing differently across languages. Future work should include repeated tokens, word positions, and dialectal variants.