Multisyllabic word production in Persian-speaking children with typical development and speech sound disorder.

OBJECTIVE

Multisyllabic word production is considered a sensitive indicator of phonological development and disorder, yet data from Persian‑speaking children remain limited. This study aimed to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence on multisyllabic word production in Persian‑speaking children with typical development (TD) and those with Speech Sound Disorder showing consistent error patterns (SSD-CEP).

METHOD: Eighty monolingual Persian‑speaking children (40 TD, 40 SSD) aged 4;0-7;0 years participated. Speech samples were elicited using the Multisyllabic Words Test. Quantitative measures included proportion of consonants correct‑revised (PCC‑R), proportion of whole‑word correctness (PWC), and proportion of whole‑word proximity (PWP). Qualitative analyses examined phonological error patterns, including word‑structure errors and substitution processes. Age‑group comparisons and correlational analyses were conducted to examine developmental trends within and between groups.

RESULTS

Children with TD tended to show significant age‑related increases in PCC‑R, PWC, and PWP, with steady improvements across age groups (p < .001). Children with SSD-CEP consistently performed lower across all measures in this sample. In TD children, associations among PCC‑R, PWP, and PWC strengthened with age and were uniformly strong by ages 5;0 and 6;0. In contrast, children with SSD-CEP showed very strong correlations at younger ages, particularly between PCC‑R and whole‑word measures, which weakened by age six. Major phonological error patterns in multisyllabic word production appeared to be largely resolved by 4;0 in TD children, whereas fronting, final consonant deletion, backing, and cluster reduction persisted in the SSD group.

CONCLUSION

Despite language‑specific phonological characteristics, multisyllabic word accuracy and error persistence patterns in Persian‑speaking children align with cross‑linguistic findings, providing preliminary support for the potential clinical utility of multisyllabic word measures for assessment and profiling of phonological disorders.