Phonology Report: Brad's Speech and Language Assessment Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of Brad, a 3-year-10-month-old child, focusing on his speech and language assessment. The report outlines the findings of the CELF/P2 and DEAP evaluations, revealing issues in consonant usage, cluster reduction, and velar fronting. Brad's language abilities are diagnosed as bordering on normal, with specific weaknesses in single and clustered consonants. The report also includes a comprehensive intervention plan, recommending continued speech and language therapy, parental involvement, and specific strategies to improve Brad's pronunciation and linguistic skills. References to relevant research and studies are provided to support the findings and recommendations. The analysis emphasizes the need for targeted interventions and parental support to enhance Brad's speech development.

Running Head: Phonology- REPORT ASSESSMENT
Phonology- Report Assessment
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Case Information History
Brad, 3 years 10 months old, was brought the Speech Therapy Centre by his mother.
She is worried that he is not speaking as much as others of his age, and that his speech lacks
clarity and fluency. He first spoke at 15 months old; two-word sequences appeared around
29 months of age. Brad’s preschool teacher states that although a social and jolly child,
Brad’s schoolmates sometimes find it difficult to understand him. A recent hearing test shows
his auditory perception at normal limits, without any infection. Brad’s speech and language
assessment reports are as follows.
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool 2 (CELF/P2)
Independent Analysis
Phonetic Inventory-Brad has a decent percentage of single consonant usage. But he has an
oddly high usage of affricates and consonants in particular sound classes, with a significant
use of ſ, Ɵ, ȫ ,Ʒ , ʧ, and so on; with ʧ and g not appearing in initial emerging (Franken &
Weisglas-Kuperus, 2012).
He has a relatively low usage of clustered consonants, with the (bw), (pw), (dl) and
(bl) clusters in the initial emerging. No clustered consonant, especially no /s/ and /r/ clusters,
were recorded in the final emergence; this indicates an infirmity of the same. Usage of
vowels are fair and within normal limits (Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2012).
Syllable shape syllable stress and inventory- Recognition of syllable shapes are normal,
while there are no difficulties in using syllable shape. Usage of syllables in terms of shape
and stress are clearly within normal limits.

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Word Length Inventory- Brad has no difficulty in his aptitude of using bi-, tri-, and quad-
syllable words; hence, word lengths are within normal limits.
Relational Analysis
Vowel and consonant correctness- Like the independent analysis, Brad does not get his
single consonants correct, with an overall percentage of correct consonants only 52.5 %. This
indicates poor consonant usage, in relation to children of the same age-group (Dodd, 2013).
Percentage of vowels correct is within normal limits. There are also no problems in syllable
shapes, stress and word lengths, which are within normal limits.
Phonological Processes- Brad suffers from a few phonological defects like cluster reduction,
stopping for fricatives and affricates, gliding of liquids, velar fronting. Problems of
simplifying consonant clusters and simplification of fricatives are also evident. Other
observations like phonation, speech rate, speech breathing and intonation are within normal
limits. Findings on speech ratings are consistent and partially intelligible; which suggests that
they are within accepted limits.
Diagnostics:
Brad’s language abilities are diagnosed to be bordering on normal, with a few infirmities in
singular and clustered consonants, and getting consonants correct. Continuation of speech
and language therapy is advisable.
Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation & Phonology (DEAP)
Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) is method of speech-
examination which evaluates and segregates between issues of articulation, hindered
phonology and the correlation between inconsistent and consistent phonological disorders
(Ramus et al., 2013).

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There is a quantitative score summary derived from the previous test; and a qualitative
analysis of patterns of errors a subject (here, Brad) tends to make (Waring & Knight, 2013).
Brady’s DEAP Phonology results are as follows.
Brad, 3years 10 months old, suffers from a couple of delayed and unusual speech patterns.
Fronting of velars are evident in pronunciation of words like ‘crab’, ‘queen’, gloves, where
the subject cannot produce velar sounds and replaces them with ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds coming
from the front of the tongue.
Cluster reduction is palpable in usage of ‘swing’, ‘biscuit’, ‘school’ and ‘square’,
‘strawberry’, ‘spider’ and so on.
Gliding is also a fairly obbservable flaw in Brad’s speech. This is evident in the way he
pronounces the words ‘umbrella’, ‘train’,’ bread’, ‘crab’, ‘pram’, ‘rabbit’ etc. He fails to
pronounce the ‘r’ consonant and replaces it with a semi-vowel, ‘w’ in these cases.
Diagnostics:
From a quantitative angle, Brad is diagnosed to have problems in pronouncing and
articulating consonants, especially the single-clustered ones. As noted in the previous text
result, he has a poor percentage of consonants spoken correctly, at 52.5%. The Diagnostic
Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology explains this infirmity to pronounce such words.
However, he has no problems as to pronouncing vowels with a Percent of Vowels correct at
100%, which is definitely within the acceptable range.
Intervention Planning
The CELF/P2 results reveal that Brad has fairly decent language and speech aptitudes,
with a few notable problems here and there. He has a moderate Language Content Index

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value of 83 (reference interval- 72-86), while his Language Structure Index result is 69
(reference interval- 61-73). This portends average speech and language abilities, which is
quite satisfactory at such a premature age of 3 years 10 months. However, he has poor
consonant structuring and pronouncing abilities in spite of being good with vowels. This
results in his incorrect pronunciation of some of the phonetic structures. The most frequent
troubles he faces in this regard are fronting of velars, cluster reduction and gliding. This
appears in quite a few of his results in the DEAP Evaluation. But as already stated, there is no
reason to be alarmed as these are minor issues which can be dealt with through therapy and
speech practice (Bishop, 2014).
Brad will continue to improve under speech and language therapy. Parents and/or
guardians need to keep motivating him to practice speaking and pronounce the tricky
clustered and single consonant sounds that he has been facing the most trouble with. Parents
need to support him in the therapy procedure and encourage him constantly. They need to set
small and realistic targets for him to achieve on a daily or weekly basis. Brad’s language
perception and structure should be nurtured by asking open-end questions that require a full
sentence rather than one word or monosyllabic replies. Parents should try to improve his
utterances by constantly correcting his sentences and words which are likely to be
inappropriate at this age. Special emphasis should be given to words and expressions
involving clustered consonants, semi-vowels, fricatives etc. where he needs improvement
(Wittle, Spaulding & Schechtman, 2013). Proper therapy and such encouraging measures on
the home front are sure to enhance Brad’s speaking and linguistic aptitudes in the near future.

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References:
Bishop, D. (2014). Uncommon Understanding (Classic Edition): Development and disorders
of language comprehension in children. Psychology Press.
Conti-Ramsden, G., & Durkin, K. (2012). Language development and assessment in the
preschool period. Neuropsychology Review, 22(4), 384-401.
Dodd, B. (2013). Differential diagnosis and treatment of children with speech disorder. John
Wiley & Sons.
Franken, M. C. J., & Weisglas-Kuperus, N. (2012). Language functions in preterm-born
children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 129(4), 745-754.
Ramus, F., Marshall, C. R., Rosen, S., & van der Lely, H. K. (2013). Phonological deficits in
specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia: towards a
multidimensional model. Brain, 136(2), 630-645.
Waring, R., & Knight, R. (2013). How should children with speech sound disorders be
classified? A review and critical evaluation of current classification
systems. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 48(1), 25-
40.
Wittke, K., Spaulding, T. J., & Schechtman, C. J. (2013). Specific language impairment and
executive functioning: Parent and teacher ratings of behavior. American Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology, 22(2), 161-172.