Speech intelligibility in 4-5 year old children

Introduction : Speech intelligibility is the measure of the effectiveness of speech . The Speech intelligibility has important clinical implication including the following : Determining if intervention is needed, setting intervention goals and evaluating effectiveness of intervention . The goal of this study was to measure Speech intelligibility in 4 - 5 year old children . Materials and Methods : It was a descriptive analytic –cross sectional study . The research group consistent of 70 children ( 35 girls, 35boys ( , that were selected by simple random method among five districts of Isfahan . Two kindergartens from each district were selected accidentally and speech samples of seven children from each kindergarten were analyzed to determine Speech intelligibility . Results: Mean of Speech intelligibility percentage was 97 . 53 ( SD = 2 . 4 ) and its range was 90 to 100 . Mean of Speech intelligibility percentage in boys was 97 . 9 and in girls was 97 . 9 . T - test showed no significant differences ( P = 074 ) in Speech intelligibility between boys and girls . Conclusion: According to the result, speech intelligibility in 4 - 5 years old children was roughly similar to the adult .