Speech and language therapists need to determine if a child’s speech sounds are age-appropriate, delayed or disordered speech skills. To do so, they need language-specific norms for the acquisition of speech sounds. There are currently no established norms for the acquisition of Sinhala consonants, which have implications for accurate diagnosis. The aim of this study was to document preliminary trends observed in the trajectory of consonant sound development in Sinhala-speaking young children so as to form a set of ‘working norms’. A picture-based articulation assessment was administered to 70 typically developing children who were between 3 years and 6 years 11 months of age. The results offer working norms for the rate of acquisition and order of acquisition of speech sounds for Sinhala. 

  S. Hettiarachchi, M. Ranaweera and R.M.W. Rajapaksha

Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development

Abstract :- http://doi.org/10.47985/dcidj.456