DEVELOPMENTAL, PSYCHOSOCIAL, AND EDUCATIONAL FACTORS IN CHILDREN WITH NONORGANIC ARTICULATION PROBLEMS1

Abstract

Nonorganic, articulatory problems, involving sound substitutions, omissions, distortions and additions are the most common of all speech disorders. One research study (io) has placed the incidence of articulatory problems at 50 per cent of all speech difficulties which are represented among school children. Investigation in this area is justified by the numerical supremacy of the problem (13) and by the comparative paucity of available research (9, I3). An articulation problem is a manifestation that the child's speech development is impaired and that his language progression is protracted. The primary problem investigated in this study may be stated as follows: Do children who have nonorganic, articulatory problems differ from children who speak normally in ways other than in the speech disorder syndrome? The rationale of the present investigation was that complete understanding of the child and his articulatory problem comes only by means of an organismic study of the child in the light of his developmental, educational, psychosocial, and speech attributes.