Comparing Acoustic Duration Differences in Jamaican Bilingual Preschoolers With and Without Possible Speech Sound Disorder.

This article investigates acoustic speech duration patterns in English among 4-year-old bilingual Jamaican Creole (JC)–English preschoolers, comparing typically developing (TD) children and those suspected of having speech sound disorders (sSSD). The study analyzed voice onset time (VOT), vowel duration, whole-word duration, and vowel-to-word duration proportions, considering contextual factors such as sex and percentage of exposure to and use of JC and English. Results showed few significant acoustic duration differences between TD and sSSD groups, with the TD group exhibiting greater VOT variability; notably, exposure to JC predicted vowel-to-word duration proportion in the sSSD group. The findings highlight challenges in diagnosing speech sound disorders in bilingual children due to language-specific features like JC vowel lengthening and emphasize the need for culturally sensitive assessment tools that account for bilingualism and sociolinguistic diversity.