Children's Simplified Phonological Development

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Deletion:

  • Children will often simplify pronunciation by deleting certain sounds.
    • Final consonants dropped - eg. the 't' sound in 'hat' and 'cat'.
    • Unstressed syllables are often deleted - eg. 'banana' becomes 'nana'
    • Consonant clusters are reduced - eg. 'snake' becomes 'nake', 'sleep' becomes 'seep'
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Substitution:

  • Another form of simlification involves substituting harder sounds with easier ones.
    • R (as in rock or story) becomes /w/
    • Th (and in there, that or thumb) becomes /d/, /n/ or /f/
    • T (as in toe) becomes /d/
    • P (as in pig) becomes /b/
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Reduplication:

Reduplication of sounds involves the repetition of familiar utternances - for example:

  • 'Mama', 'Dada' or 'Lala'
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Understanding:

BERKO and BROWN: 'Fis' phenominon

They describe how a child referred to a plastic fish as his 'fis'. When an adult asked 'is that your fis?' he replied 'no, its my fis'. When he was asked ' Is that your fish' the child responded 'yes, my fis'.

  • This proves that understanding may develop faster than the ability to pronounce.
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