Examination of narrative skills and working memory performance in children with speech sound disorders

Various studies have shown that children with Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) have lower working memory capacity compared to their typically developing peers. The ability to convey communicative intent and maintain logical coherence in message content during spontaneous speech is related to working memory capacity. This study aims to compare the narrative skills and working memory performance of children with SSD+language disorders and typically developing (TD) children aged between 8;0 and 8;11 years. The participants included 20 children with SSD+language disorders (10 boys and 10 girls) and 20 TD children (10 boys and 10 girls). Data collection tools used in this study were the Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test (SST), Working Memory Scale, and the picture book "Frog Where Are You?" by Mercer Mayer, which was used to assess the children's narrative skills in the context of storytelling. For the analysis of the children's narratives, the "Storytelling Assessment Form" developed by Işıtan was employed. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 25.0 statistical software. The analysis revealed no statistically significant relationship between the total narrative scores and total working memory scores of the children with SSD+language disorders (r =-0.336; p = 0.148). However, significant differences were found between the SSD+language disorders group and the TD group in terms of working memory performance and narrative skills (p = 0.000). Therefore, it was observed that the SSD+language disorders group exhibited weaker performance compared to the TD group. These results suggest that speech therapists should not view SSD solely as an issue of speech sound production but should also evaluate the working memory and narrative skills of children with SSD.