Background: The phonological skills/processes of children with speech sound disorders are not a key focus of researchers and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Poland. There is a growing trend for mostly providing Polish-speaking children with myofunctional, manual, and articulation therapy, paying little attention to phonological skills/processes. This seems worrying given the high percentage of children with speech/language delays/disorders and the consequent increased risk of lower phonological and literacy skills. One reason might be the apparent deficiency of the standardised tools for assessing phonology-related issues in this group of children, which is the largest group taken care of by SLPs.

Aims: To develop a tool for assessing the phonological skills of 6–10 years old Polish-speaking children with speech sound disorders.

Method: The tool framework is: (a) a short-term phonological memory subtest based on non-words of high phonotactic probability, with no sounds difficult to produce (sibilants and [r] sound), (b) a working phonological memory subtest based on real words, with no sounds difficult to produce (sibilants and [r] sound), and (c) a phonological planning subtest (consistency) based on reals words of high and low frequency, including consonant clusters.
The word material for testing was chosen based on several criteria, depending on the subtest, e.g., the variety of language-specific phonotactic combinations, frequency of word occurrence, and word length. The selected words and non-words were reviewed by competent judges who were linguists and speech-language pathologists, both practitioners and theorists. A pre-pilot study for final word and non-word item selection is currently being planned as a next step. Then a validity study will be implemented to assess the psychometric properties of the tool.
Among the theoretical assumptions underlying the tool are: (a) eliminating speech confound in real word and non-word testing with speakers who misarticulate sounds, and (b) phonological planning deficit (within-word inconsistency in the production of syllable structures).

Results: The tool meets the gap in the phonological assessment of Polish-speaking children. It may help discriminate children with typical phonological skills from those with delay/disorder. It may also be useful for differential diagnosis of children with speech sound disorders or literacy skills assessment.

Conclusions: The designed tool addresses three aspects of phonological skills and might be substantively informative for research and practice with speakers who misarticulate and whose speech errors might be evidence of phonological skills difficulties.

Implications for children and families: Phonological skills practice may not only support the effectiveness of speech therapy but also improve (pre)literacy skills.

Implications for practitioners: More than working on articulation is required. If you want children with speech sound disorders to progress better, introduce phonological practice. By taking care of phonological skills, you also take care of (pre)literacy.

Funding: National Center of Science, MINIATURA 8, Registration number: 2024/08/X/HS6/00594.

Key words: professionals’ voices, theory, education, speech sound disorders, phonological skills

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 4: Quality Education