Reliability of listener transcriptions of compensatory articulations

Objective: This study examined the ability of speech-language pathologists to transcribe compensatory articulation errors. Design: Speech-language pathologists phonetically transcribed audiorecordings of 130 monosyllabic words, 70 of which contained compensatory articulations. Participants: The participants for this study were two groups of 10 speech-language pathologists. Group I included speech-language pathologists who were experienced in evaluating children with cleft palate, and group II speech-language pathologists were not. Results: Marked variability was evident across listeners, with percentages of agreement ranging from 19 to 71 (mean agreement = 41%). The experienced listeners performed significantly better on the transcription task than the inexperienced listeners, but poor interjudge agreement was evident across both groups. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that speech-language pathologists may differ in their understanding of the auditory perceptual characteristics of compensatory articulations. The results underscore the need for increased training and standardization of transcription procedures.