. RECENT RESEARCH IN DYSLALIAS. . Μ ERICA STERN. B.A., Dip. Log.. (Rand.V Lecturer in Speech Defects, Univer- sity of Cape Town. 1. INTRODUCTION. In 1937 the Cape Education Department introduced free lessons in speech correction for primary school children, and today there are + 32 speech correction teachers throughout the Cape Province giving lessons to ± 2000 speech defective school children in eight cities and towns. Lessons are given twice.weekly, each of about thirty minutes in duration. This investigation has been based rn the experiences and results obtained by these speech · correction teachers. It is the aim of this investigation to determine whether there is any significant difference in the time taken by . children at different age levels to complete a course in speech correction for functional dyslalia. This study is concerned only with children of normal intelligence who have one sound only defective in their speech, not result- ing from any organic lesion, who have received lessons in speech correction over an uninterrupted period. This study also'aims at discovering whether some defective sounds are more quickly corrected than others. 11. SUBJECTS. The 350 speech defective children included in this study were all attending primary schools in the Oape Province, and receiving special lessons in speech correction, each of t 30 minutes in length, at their schools twice weekly. Therej were 193 boys and 157 girls ranging in age from 5 to 12] years inclusive, and from Sub Std. A until Std. VI inclusive. This study does not include children from special classes. 111. PROCEDURE. The speech correction teachers who co-operated in this investigation were asked to supply the following informa- tion as regards each of their pupils:- name, sex, defec- tive sound, age on admission to speech correction class, and duration of speech correction lessons. In addition each pupil was interviewed three months or longer after R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) . dismissal to ensure that no relapse had occurred. IV. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS. TABLE 1. — DEFECTIVE SOUND NUMBER OF PUPILS 5 212 -L or r 71 Θ / r 67 It was found that among 350 primary school children having only one defective sound, (functional dyslalia), the sound was defective among 212 children, the sound τ was defective in 71 children, and the sound Qj ( a v e r a g e ^mes taken being, 11.014 and 10.183 months respectively), but the sound Θ/W either 'Tor Ζ 1 ^ 3 ^ i S n l f i c a n t l y more quickly corrected7 than The greater incidence of speech defects among boys than among girls as reported by the White House Conference, (5) iB con-firmed by the present investigation. 1. 2. 3. k. V. SUMMARY. Among 350 primary school children having each only one sound defective in their speech, (functional dyslalia), it was found that there were more boys (193) than girls (157). It was found that in all cases one of the following three sounds was defective , 5 (212) ̂ or 7- (71) <9/^(67). The average time taken by all the subjects between the ages ;Of 5 and 12 years to complete their speech correc- tion -lessons was 10 months the least time taken being by the 11 year old pupils (7.25 months). It wa;s found that the sound θ β \ Ά Β significantly more quickly corrected (7.149 months) than either 5 or>L but that there was no significant difference in the time taken to correct S (11.014 months) and (10.183 months). BIBLIOGRAPHY .. R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) . BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. Edwards, Allen, Statistical Analysis for Students in Psychology and Education. Rinehart and Company, Inc., New York, page 330. 2. Hall, Margaret, Auditory Factors in Functional Articulatory Speech Defects. 3. Pearson, Karl, Tables for Statisticians and Biometriclans. U. Roe, V. , and Milisen, R., The Effect of Maturation upon Defective Articulation in Elementary Grades. Journal of Speech Disorders, Vol. 7, No. 1, page 37. 5. White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, Report of the Committee on Special Classes. D. Appleton- Century, Co. Inc., New York, 1931. 6. Wight, Maralyn. JOURNAL OF SPEECH DISORDERS. September, 1947, page 303. ~~ . ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S. My grateful thanks are due to Mrs M. Kihn, Organiser of Classes for Speech Defective and Hard-of-Hearing Classes, Department of Public Education, Cape of Good Hope, under whose aegis this investigation was conducted, and to Mr J. Taylor, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, for help with the statistical analysis. 1 CAPE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. It is the ipurpose of this investigation to determine whether there is any significant difference in the time taken by children at different age levels to complete a course in speech correction. This study is concerned only with children of normal intelligence with one simple articulatory defect, (dyslalia,) not resulting from any organic lesion, e.g. cleft palate, hearing loss, who have received lessons in speech correction over an uninterrupted period. This study also aims at discovering whether some defective sounds are more quickly corrected than others. R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) . SUGGESTIONS FOR FILLING IN THE FORM, SEX: SPEECH DEFECT; LANGUAGE: DATE; STANDARD: DISMISSAL: DURATION OF LESSONS: CHECK UP: TEACHER: Write Μ (male) or F (female). This study is concerned only with children who have only one defective sound. The sound which is defective, together with the sound substituted, should "be entered, e.g. substitutes 'V for "r". State whether the speech correction lessons were conducted through the medium of Afrikaans or English or "both. (Write Α. Ε or AE.) Do not include the names of pupils whose lessons have "been Interrupted "by a break of a term or more owing to change of teacher, absence of pupil or any other reason. Write down the names of only those children who were in ordinary classes both at time of admission and at time of dismissal. Do not include the. names of children from special classes or who were placed in special classes during the course in speech correc- tion. This study is concerned only with those pupil s who have been dismissed as rehabili- tated. Write in the time in-years and months from the admission date until the dismissal date, i.e. the actual time taken for the course in speech correction. In cases where this.is possible, state whether the child's speech is still satis- factory-, or whether there has been any re- lapse. Write in the name of the teacher who gave the course in speech correction to the pupil concerned. Any number of names of pupils can be entered on the same form, but· draw a line right across the page after the name of each pupil. When you have filled in the forms, please return them to:- Miss E. Stern, c/o Mrs M. Kihn, Public School, MOWBRAY„ Cape Town. Thank you for the information. R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2)