Bushra saleh M

PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

Phonological processes are the patterns that

young children use to simplify adult speech. All

children use these processes while their speech

and language are developing. For example, very

young children (ages 1 to 3) may say “wa-wa” for

“water” or “tat” for “cat.” Other children may

leave out the final sound in words (for example,

“pi” for “pig” or “ha” for “hat.”) Up to age 3,

these are appropriate productions. As children

mature, so does their speech and they stop using

these patterns to simplify words. In fact, by age 5,

most children stop using all phonological

processes and their speech sounds more like the

adults around them.

As children stop using phonological processes, their

speech becomes more understandable. This allows them

to become better communicators. For example, between

1 1⁄2 and 2 years of age, typically developing children

may produce around 50 words. Between the ages of 4

1/2 and 5 years, children are able to produce up to

2,000 words. When children continue to apply these

processes or patterns to their speech AND learn new

words at the same time, their speech can become very

difficult to understand. Many times the children do not

hear the differences in the words and will say one word

to mean three different ones. For example, children

who continue to delete the initial consonant from a

word may say “all” to mean each of these words: fall,

ball, wall.

The following processes are frequent, systematic

mistakes made by normally developing children. You

many notice some unusual spellings in the examples

that are provided. This is to help you understand the

changes in sounds. Read the words out loud to help

you hear the differences between the adult

pronunciation of the word and the sounds produced

by a child with the phonological process.

COMMON PHONOLOGICAL

PROCESSES:

• Weak Syllable Deletion

- Description: The omission of a

weak (unstressed) syllable that

either comes before or after a

stressed syllable.

- Examples: "telephone"

pronounced as "tefone"

"yellow" pronounced as "yell"

"above" pronounced as "bov"

“tomato" pronounced as "may-toe"

"probably" pronounced as "prob-

lee"

"paper" pronounced as "pape"

• Final Consonant Deletion

•

- Description: This process occurs

when a child reduces a syllable by

omitting the final consonant of

that syllable.

- Examples: "pot" pronounced as

"paw"

"bake" pronounced as "bay"

"nice" pronounced as "nie"

"cat" pronounced as "ca"

"coat" pronounced as "koe"

"phone" pronounced as "foe"

• Reduplication

Description: Reduplication is

characterized by the repetition of

a syllable. There are two types of

reduplication, total reduplication

and partial reduplication.

- Examples: "daddy" pronounced

as "dada"

"baby" pronounced as "bay-bay"

"movie" pronounced as "moo-

moo"

"water" pronounced as "wawa

Cluster Reduction

- Description: When a consonant is

deleted from a consonant cluster the error

is referred to as a cluster reduction. If

there are three adjacent consonants in the

same syllable, one or two of the

consonants may be deleted.

- Examples: "snow" pronounced as "no"

" help" pronounced as "hep"

"play" pronounced as "pay"

"stripe" pronounced as "tripe" or "type" or

"ripe"

"green" pronounced as "geen"

Stopping

- Description: The substitution

of a stop for a fricative or an

affricate .

- Examples: "sake" pronounced

as "take" (fricative replaces a

stop)

"zoo" pronounced as "do"

(fricative replaces stop)

"Jane" pronounced as "dane"

(affricate replaces stop)

Fronting

- Description: The substitution of a

velar consonants and palatal

consonants with an alveolar place of

articulation .

- Examples: "cat" pronounced as

"tat" (velar fronting)

"get" pronounced as "det" (palatal

fronting)

"cookie" pronounced as "tootie"

(velar fronting)

"match" pronounced as "mat"

(palatal fronting)

Deaffrication

- Description: The

substitution of a fricative for

an affricate.

- Examples: "chip"

pronounced as "ship"

"matches" pronounced as

"mashes"

"ledge" pronounced as "lez"

"chalk" pronounced as

"shock"

Gliding

- Description: Replacing the

consonants /l/ and /r/ with the

consonants /w/ and /j/.

- Examples: "rabbit"

pronounced as "wabbit"

"hello" pronounced as "heyo"

"look" pronounced as "wook"

"carrot" pronounced as

"cawet"

Vocalization

- Description: This process is also

referred to as "vowelization" because

it is the substitution of a vowel for an

/l/ or /r/ that follows a vowel. This

process is commonly found in words

that end in "r" and "el" sounds.

- Examples: "tiger" pronounced as

"tie-goo"

"turn" pronounced as "ton"

"third" pronounced as "thud"

"water" pronounced as "wato"

Labial Assimilation

- Description: The production of a

nonlabial phoneme with a labial

place of articulation. This happens

because there is a labial phoneme

elsewhere in the word.

- Examples: "book" pronounced as

"buhp"

"mad" pronounced as "mab"

"cap" pronounced as "pap"

Velar Assimilation

- Description: This process occurs

when a phoneme is produced with a

velar place of articulation due to the

presence of a velar phoneme

elsewhere in the word.

- Examples: "cup" pronounced as

'kuk"

"gone" pronounced as "gong"

"take" pronounced as "kake"

"doggy" pronounced as "goggy"

Alveolar Assimilation

- Description: This process occurs

when a phoneme is produced with

an alveolar place of articulation due

to the presence of an alveolar

phoneme elsewhere in the word.

- Examples: "time" pronounced as

"tine"

"bat" pronounced as "dat"

"neck" pronounced as "net"

"shut" pronounced as "sut"

Prevocalic Voicing

- Description: When an unvoiced

consonant preceding the vowel of a

syllable is voiced, it is called

prevocalic voicing.

- Examples: "pig" pronounced as

"big"

"cup" pronounced as "gup"

"pear" pronounced as "bear"

"train" pronounced as "drain"

Devoicing

- Description: When a syllable-final

voiced phoneme that precedes a

pause or silence between words is

unvoiced, it is called devoicing.

- Examples: "bad" pronounced as

"bat"

"led" pronounced as "let"

"card" pronounced as "cart"

"flag" pronounced as "flack"

Think you for your

listening .. ^.^