Phonetically mediated recall in the phonetically disordered child

Children with phonology disorders frequently show reduced performance in short-term recall, inviting the assumption that impairment of memory may cause or help to cause the speech disorder. Ten children with marked phonology disorders were compared to 10 correctly speaking children on a test of short-term memory for sets of pictures whose names rhymed or did not rhyme. The phonologically disordered children performed significantly worse than those with correct speech and provided less evidence of phonetic mediation, a process commonly associated with enhanced levels of recall. Attention is drawn to the possibility that the disorder of phonology operated indirectly to reduce the efficiency of memory, though the question is complicated.