Evaluating the Diagnostic Utility of a Nonword Repetition Task for Identifying Children with a History of Speech Sound Disorders

Objectives: This study examined the potential of a nonword repetition task to identify residual speech processing deficits in children with a history of speech sound disorders. Methods: Participants included 40 children aged 5 to 7, divided into three groups: normal speech acquisition (NSA), speech sound disorders (SSD) and normalized speech acquisition with SSD history (NSA-S). The task included 10 Korean nonwords and was evaluated using syllable accuracy, sequencing accuracy, vowel and consonant accuracy, and error types. Results: The NSA-S group performed significantly lower than the NSA group on both syllable and sequencing scores, with performance comparable to that of the SSD group. In terms of vowel accuracy, both the NSA-S and SSD groups showed significantly lower scores than the NSA group, highlighting vowel accuracy as a sensitive clinical marker. Furthermore, the NSA-S group exhibited significantly more medial coda addition errors than the other groups, indicating persistent instability in speech planning or phoneme sequencing. Conclusion: These findings support the nonword repetition task as a sensitive tool for detecting subtle processing deficits in children with a history of SSD, even when overt articulation appears normalized. The study emphasizes the importance of incorporating both quantitative and qualitative analyses in evaluating speech processing skills and recommends continued monitoring for children with resolved SSD.