The Development of Language-Specific Speech Norms for Sri Lankan Tamil Shakeela Saleem, Ajeema Wahid, Shyamani Hettiarachchi. Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. INTRODUCTION Data collection method: Questionnaire (demographic details) Informal picture based assessment of Sri Lankan Tamil (80 pictures included sounds in initial, medial, final and clusters) based on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) (3) Responses were audio recorded and simultaneously phonetically transcribed. Data analysis: Phonemic acquisition: Phoneme emergence (3) – if a phoneme was produced by 90% of children in an age group Phonological processes: (3) 5 occurrences of an error pattern in 10% of children in an age group Phonological accuracy measures: (3) Percent of Consonants Correct (PCC), Percent of Vowels Correct (PVC) and Percent of Phonemes Correct (PPC) Statistical analyses were done using independent samples t tests on SPSS 16 Table 1 Phonemic acquisition of older and younger groups of children 25% of people speak Sri Lankan Tamil in Sri Lanka and there are dialectal variations based on ethnicity and geographical location(1). Normative data on speech development is essential to differentiate between delayed and disordered speech. Speech and Language Therapists in Sri Lanka currently use standardized English norms in clinical practice to diagnose and plan intervention for speech disorders. Cross-linguistic studies have shown that languages have universal and specific features; the norms of one language can thus not be applied to other languages.(2,4) The need to obtain language-specific normative data for speech development is essential.   Younger children Older children 3;0 - 3;5 years 3;6 - 3;11 years Emerged Plosive p, b, t, d, k, g, ʈ, ɖ, c, ɟ Nasal m, n, ɳ , ŋ Fricative s, f Approximant j, v Trill r r, ɽ Lateral l Not emerged ɲ h, ʃ Ɩ ɽ Figure 1: The mean comparison of both age group in phonological accuracy measures CONCLUSIONS Language-specific findings for Sri Lankan Tamil compared to English norms ▪ Late acquisition of / ʃ /, /h/ ▪ Early mastery of /c/, / ɟ /, /r/ Language universal (fronting, stopping) and language-specific (lateralization, replacing /g/ for /h/ and /k/ for /h/ ) processes were evident in Sri Lankan Tamil. There is a statistical significance of age and social dialectal variation on phonological measures. Recommendations for further research Include participants from a wider age range Longitudinal descriptive study The phonological processes Three processes (fronting, stopping, lateralization) were found in the younger age group and one (fronting) in the older age group (Table 2). Table 2 The phonological processes identified in more than 10% of children in an age group based on 5 occurrence. Process Target word Adult realization Child realization Fronting Ear /ka:du/ / ta:du/ Stopping Cock / se:vəl/ /te:vəl/ Lateralization Tree /marəm/ /maləm/ OBJECTIVES To gain reliable developmental norms for phonemic acquisition and phonological processes in Sri Lankan Tamil Compare and contrast the findings between: Age groups, gender and social dialectal variations ( Hindu and Muslim) Some examples of language-specific error patterns observed which had less than 5 occurrences Process Target word Adult realization Child realization /h/ → /k/ Cloud /me:həm/ / me:kəm/ /h/ → /g/ Smoke / pohə/ /pogə/ References 1. Suseendirarajah, S.,1999. Prof. S. Suseendirarajah’s sixty fifth birthday commemoration volume [Manuscript]. sixty fifth birthday commemoration committee. University of Jaffna. Sri Lanka. 2. Naidoo, Y., 2003, A development profile of speech sound and syllable acquisition in Zulu speaking children. M.Sc dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria. 3. Dodd , B., Holm, A., Hua, Z. and Crosbies, S., 2003, Phonological development: a normative study of British English-speaking children Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 17, 617-643. 4. Hua, Z. and Dodd, B., 1999, The phonological acquisition of Putongua (Modern Standard Chinese) METHODOLOGY RESULTS Phonological accuracy measures (figure 1) Older children had higher PCC (p<0.05) and PPC (p<0.05) than younger children. Girls had higher mean scores on each measure which did not reach statistical significance Older Hindu children had higher PCC (p<0.01) and PPC (p<0.05) than older Muslim children. Study design: Descriptive cross- sectional study Study participants:160 children aged 3;0-3;5 and 3;6-3;11 years old, first language speakers of Sri Lankan Tamil in Colombo and Trincomalee No exclusion criteria was used (3) Phonemic acquisition Older children acquired 84% and younger children acquired 80% of the total target phonemes assessed (Table 1).