Consonant accuracy and intelligibility of Southern Vietnamese children

ABSTRACT Understanding typically developing children’s speech acquisition is useful to assist speech-language pathologists’ diagnosis and intervention planning for children with speech sound disorders. The aim of this research was to investigate Southern Vietnamese-speaking children’s speech accuracy and intelligibility. Participants were 132 children aged 3;0–5;11 living in Southern Viet Nam (Ho Chi Minh City) whose consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones were assessed using the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (VSA) and parent-reported intelligibility was assessed using the Vietnamese version of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-VN). Participants’ percentage of consonants correct (PCC) was significantly lower for the younger children compared with the other age groups. Mean PCC was 89.19 (SD = 7.83) at 3;0–3;5 years and 99.31 (SD = 1.33) at 5;6–5;11 years. Percentage of semivowels correct was higher than the percentage of initial and final consonants correct. Participants produced tones and vowels accurately even from the youngest age group. On average, the participants were reported to be usually to always intelligible and were more intelligible with their parents than other communication partners. There was a positive, weak correlation between speech accuracy (PCC) and intelligibility (ICS-VN). There was no sex effect for PCC and no significant effect for age or sex on intelligibility. These data provide information about typical speech acquisition to support the emerging speech-language pathology profession in Viet Nam.