VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 3
Speech Sound Development and Visual Impairments
Visual input is important when children are developing speech sound
production skills. Young sighted children intuitively access visual input to help
them develop speech sound perception skills and subsequent speech sound
imitation skills (Hunnius & Geuze, 2004; Lewkowicz & Hansen-Tift, 2012; Wills,
1979). Visual cues provide visible information about how to shape the speech
movements of the mouth to complement the auditory signal. Miller and Nicely
(1955) noted that during the developmental period when young children acquire
speech sound production, from birth through about age eight (Sander, 1972),
children's accuracy of speech sound production is supported by visual cues. A
number of studies have demonstrated that receiving visual cues enhances a
speaker's production of intelligible speech (Jesse et al., 2000; Massaro & Bosseler,
2003) and enhances the precision of speech and in the variety of speech sounds
that can be produced (Menard et al., 2009). Listeners can more effectively identify
speech sounds when they receive redundant visual and auditory cues (Menard et
al., 2009), and these cues help speakers produce sounds more accurately.
The nature of speech sound production deficits in children with VI is an area
of ongoing research. Researchers have not yet adequately specified the prevalence
of speech delay in this population or evidence-based assessment and treatment
methods to promote communicative development. Not only are the reasons that
