Purdue researcher among first to explore children’s language abilities in relation to speech sound disorder

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu 

Françoise Brosseau-Lapré (right) conducts research with a participant in her Child Phonology Lab. (Photo provided)

Roughly 8-9% of young children have a speech sound disorder, which results in difficulties producing speech sounds correctly and often has no known cause, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have watched this statistic grow, as more families seek support for their children’s difficulties with producing speech sounds accurately. This includes Françoise Brosseau-Lapré, certified SLP and associate professor in the Purdue University Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, who is trying to uncover the root causes of speech sound disorder in her Child Phonology Lab within the College of Health and Human Sciences.  

Brosseau-Lapré poses for a photo in her Child Phonology Lab.(Photo provided)

“So many more kindergarteners have started to be diagnosed with speech sound disorders than before the pandemic,” Brosseau-Lapré said. “A lot of school-based SLPs are reporting that the children who are coming to them have a lot more speech and language difficulties than they used to. I think it’s going to be really interesting to see which ones resolve quickly and which children continue to have difficulties.” 

While speech challenges directly affect children’s ability to communicate, Brosseau-Lapré explained many children’s outward speech problems tend to get better as they age. However, children who don’t receive intervention early may have lasting difficulty with reading and language.  

“The surface speech errors improve, but the underlying weaknesses remain, and those tend to have to do with phonological processing,” said Brosseau-Lapré, explaining that phonological processing is the ability understand and manipulate the different sound components, such as breaking down spoken words into individual sounds. “We think those phonological processing difficulties are also at the root of a lot of dyslexia.”  

In Brosseau-Lapré’s work, she is looking to identify the underlying impairments that result in speech sound disorders. By understanding the predictors and trajectories of speech sound disorders, she can translate her findings to help determine the best type and frequency of intervention these children should receive.   

“One of the things I’m really interested in is children who produce variable speech sound errors as opposed to more consistent errors,” Brosseau-Lapré said. “Clinically, I think we’re trained that if they produce variable errors, we need to watch out for a motor speech disorder, but what we’re realizing now is there’s likely a lot of children with inconsistent speech sound disorder who produce inconsistent errors but don’t have motor speech difficulties. I’m finding if they produce the same sound differently in different words, that also seems to be related to their phonological processing skills, and I think these kids might be more at risk for reading difficulties.” 

Brosseau-Lapré noted speech work and language work have historically existed in siloes, but her innovative approach to the research combines them to understand how speech sound disorder may influence children’s language skills and vice-versa. 

“I did not realize this was a big thing I was doing, but I’m apparently one of the first ones to carefully describe children’s language abilities in relation to speech sound disorder,” Brosseau-Lapré said.  

A child participates in research in the Child Phonology Lab.(Photo provided)

Brosseau-Lapré published her textbooks, “Introduction to Speech Sound Disorders” in 2020 and “Developmental Phonological Disorders: Foundations of Clinical Practice, Second Edition” in 2018, as well as a slew of scientific papers throughout the years. However, she has recently found herself publishing written tutorials for SLPs about how to incorporate speech perception, phonological awareness and speech therapy into their practice, allowing her distinct approach to have a direct influence within the field and on students in Purdue’s No. 2-ranked speech-language pathology program. 

“Having other people reach out and comment on what they read in my book or if they are a past student or a colleague of a student and have questions for how to incorporate speech perception, it gives me goosebumps,” Brosseau-Lapré said. “I can only see so many kids myself in the lab every year, but to know that it’s possibly having an impact for hundreds more kids is really rewarding.” 

Although the noticeable articulation issues often attract the most attention, Brosseau-Lapré clarified it’s important for children experiencing speech production difficulties to be assessed by an SLP to avoid future difficulties across multiple areas of life. 

“It’s not just articulation,” Brosseau-Lapré said. “I really wish they never hesitated to consult with a speech-language pathologist. I still hear often families saying when I first see their child at age 4 or 5 that the pediatrician said it was going to go away. We now know that speech sound disorders can seem to go away, but these children are still at risk for academic difficulties, and we also understand a bit more of the social difficulties they can have and the bullying and all of these other socio-emotional aspects.” 

Brosseau-Lapré is currently hoping to pursue a longitudinal study, following children from ages 4-7, to explore how speech sound disorder may influence their development and how targeted intervention may help reduce the challenges they experience.  

“If their speech difficulties are severe, the teachers will send them to see someone, but if they’re somewhere in the middle, I do think they don’t get identified until they have literacy difficulties,” Brosseau-Lapré said. “I would like to track them because I’m really not sure when children are 8 or 9 and they get diagnosed with reading difficulties, how many of them had difficulties producing speech sounds at 3 years old?”