A 5-year-old girl consistently produces /s/ → [s̪]. This is best described as what type of error?

A 5-year-old girl consistently produces /s/ → [s̪]. This is best described as what type of error?

• A. typical because 90% of 5-year-old girls produce this distortion.
• B. nondevelopmental because it has persisted past the median age of acquisition for /s/.
• C. developmental because she is younger than the expected age of acquisition for the /s/ phoneme.
• D. atypical because fewer than 5% of children produce this kind of error.

Answer: (D)

This question tests how articulation errors are categorized by how common they are in typical development and by age expectations. Producing /s/ as [s̪] is a dentalized version of the usual alveolar s. This dentalization is not a common developmental step among most five-year-olds, and it occurs in a small minority of children. When an error is rare—fewer than about 5% of children exhibit it—it's described as atypical. So labeling the error as atypical best captures its status. It's not simply a matter of persistence to mark it as nondevelopmental, and it's not a standard developmental milestone for this age, given the rarity of this specific articulation pattern.

This question tests how articulation errors are categorized by how common they are in typical development and by age expectations. Producing /s/ as [s̪] is a dentalized version of the usual alveolar s. This dentalization is not a common developmental step among most five-year-olds, and it occurs in a small minority of children. When an error is rare—fewer than about 5% of children exhibit it—it's described as atypical. So labeling the error as atypical best captures its status. It's not simply a matter of persistence to mark it as nondevelopmental, and it's not a standard developmental milestone for this age, given the rarity of this specific articulation pattern.