Typical Phonological Development

Phonological Development

Acquiring speech sound form and function w/in one’s language system .

• language and ohonological development are interrelated in early stages

Stages of Phonological Development:

1. at birth → children move the articulators reflexively, vocalizations are by chance

2. By age 3.5 → most children can be understood ~90% of the time

3. By age 4 → most children known the phonological system of their language

4. school age → metalinguistics and phonological awareness

Prelinguistic Stage

• Reflexive Vocalizations: basic life processes (coughing, sucking) to emotional sounds (cooing, laughter)

• Vocal Play: child experiments w/ various suprasegmental features of the sounds they are producing

• Canonical Babbling: first type of babbling a child produces, includes both reduplicated and non-reduplicated

First Word and True Word

First Word: may not sound like a real word (ex: “ba” when used consistently for “ball”)

True Word include:

• sound relationship to the actual word

• used in the presence of the referent → what its referring to

• It is different from a phonetically consistent form

• consistent use to mean one thing

First 50 Word Stage

At the end of this stage, when children can produce ~50 words, they are typically capable of understanding ~200 words

Item Learning: child first acquires word forms as unanalyzed unites as production wholes

System Learning: child acquires the phonemic principles of the phonological system in question (Ex. when a child understands that “cap” is different from “tap” because [k] and [t] change meaning)

First 50 Words Stage Cont.

• it is common for many phonological modifications to be used

• stops and nasals are first sounds /p, b, m, n, t, d, k, g/

• early fricatives come next /h, f/ and the glide /w/

• sounds are typically first produced at the very frn or very back of the mouth

Past the First 50 Words

The use of phonological process terminology is best used once the child has passed the one-word stage to word combinations, and has more than a 50-word vocabulary

Preschool Stage

• largest growth phonology

• earliest processes: reduplication and final consonant deletion

• weak syllable deletion → lasts to abt age 4

• cluster reduction → still seen in age 5

Epenthesis → simplifying production difficulty if consonant clusters. Inserting a sound segment into a word like: sepat instead of spat

School-Aged Children (Age 5+)

Most children have mastered phonology, they continue to adapt different contexts, words, and situations.

• Able to understand intonation patterns and stress

• Sound inventory development completed by age 7-9 but still have difficulty w/ consonant clusters

• by age 5, children understood clearly by parent and peers

School-aged Children: Phonology

• Coding: translating stimuli from one form to another

  • Ex: auditory to written form or vice versa

• Phonemic Awareness: awareness at phoneme level, includes understanding that words are made up of individual sounds.

  • Ex: ability to break up and match sounds

• Metaphonology: conscious awareness of sounds w/in language and how combined to form words

  • Ex: child can figure out how many sound there are in a word

Phonological Processes: Syllable Structure

• Reduplication: common during first-50-stage

Phonological Processes: Assimilation

part of normal development through age 2 → concerning past age 3

Phonological Processes: Gone by 3;0

• Pre-vocalic voicing: pig→ big

• Word final de-voicing: pig→ pick

• Stopping /f/: fish→ tish

• Stopping /s/: soap→ dope

Phonological Processes: Gone by 3;3

• Final Consonant Deletion: comb→ coe

Phonological Processes: Gone by 3;6

• Fronting: car→ tar; ship→ sip

• Stopping /v/: very→ berry

• Stopping /z/: zoo→ doo

Phonological Processes: Gone by 3;9

• Consonant Harmony: mine→ mime; kittycat→ tittytat

Phonological Processes: Gone by 4;0

• Weak Syllable Deletion: elephant→ efant; potato→ tato; televsion→ evision

• Cluster Reduction: spoon→ poon, train→ chain, clean→ keen

Phonological Processes: Gone by 4;6

• Stopping /sh/: shop→ dop

• stopping /j/: jump→ dump

• stopping /ch/: chair→ tare

Phonological Processes: Gone by 5;0

• Gliding of liquids: run→ one; leg→ weg; leg→ yeg

• Stopping voiceless /th/: thing → ting

• Stopping Voiced /th/: them → dem