Developmental Speech Disorders (DSD) Exam 2 Practice

PWV analyses separate motor-based articulation errors from linguistic-based phonological errors to distinguish typical development from a speech sound disorder. When errors arise from difficulty in producing specific sounds due to motor constraints, that points to an articulation disorder. When errors reflect patterns in how sounds are organized and used in the language—systematic simplifications or substitutions across many sounds—that indicates a phonological disorder. This distinction helps clinicians determine whether a child’s difficulties fall within typical phonological development or represent a true speech sound disorder requiring targeted intervention. The pairing of articulation disorder with phonological disorder captures the two primary sources of speech-sound error that PWV analyses aim to separate. The other options either focus on consistency without addressing motor versus linguistic bases or blend typical processes with a disorder in a way that doesn’t isolate the underlying issue.