Consonant cluster development in two-year-olds: general trends and individual difference.

A holistic view of phonological development can be attained only through exploration of the relationship between universal developmental sequences, to establish a general pattern of development and individual learning and to provide information regarding variability. This study examined consonant cluster production, looking specifically at the relationship between general trends and individual differences as children acquire these sounds. The spontaneous speech of 16 normally developing Anglo-Australian 2-year-olds was elicited monthly for 6 months, and the corpus of 96 samples was examined using independent and relational phonological analyses. Data demonstrated that 2-year-olds were able to produce a range of consonant clusters in word-initial and word-final position, but few of the younger participants could produce consonant clusters correctly. Only half of the participants showed an increase in the percent of consonant clusters produced correctly over the 6-month period; however, their developing phonological maturity was revealed in the increase in the range and diversity of their repertoire of consonant clusters and by their closer approximations to the adult target. Specific findings of the study were compared to 10 trends for children's acquisition of consonant clusters emerging from the literature over the last 70 years.

[1]  J. Doorn,et al.  Realizations of consonant clusters by children with phonological impairment. , 1997, Clinical linguistics & phonetics.

[2]  T. Klee,et al.  Clinical assessment of oropharyngeal motor development in young children. , 1987, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[3]  T. Gallagher.  Articulatory inconsistencies in the speech of normal children. , 1975, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[4]  L. Shriberg,et al.  The Capability-Focus Treatment Framework for Child Speech Disorders , 1998 .

[5]  N Chervela,et al.  Medial consonant cluster acquisition by Telugu children , 1981, Journal of Child Language.

[6]  J A Higgs,et al.  The phonetic development of word initial -S- plus stop clusters in a group of young children. , 1968, The British journal of disorders of communication.

[7]  C. Stoel-Gammon,et al.  Normal and disordered phonology in children , 1985 .

[8]  Eeva Leinonen-davies.  Assessing the functional adequacy of children's phonological systems , 1988 .

[9]  Carol Stoel-Gammon,et al.  Phonological Skills of 2-Year-Olds , 1987 .

[10]  E. Paden,et al.  Some Phonological Acquisition Strategies Used by Two-Year-Olds , 1983 .

[11]  R. Walker,et al.  The language of children : a key to literacy , 1977 .

[12]  M. Burchinal,et al.  Phonological process decline from 2 1/2 to 8 years. , 1990, Journal of communication disorders.

[13]  J. Locke.  Clinical phonology: the explanation and treatment of speech sound disorders. , 1983, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[14]  L. Leonard,et al.  The speech of phonologically disordered children acquiring Italian , 1991 .

[15]  A T Dyson,et al.  Phonetic inventories of 2- and 3-year-old children. , 1988, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[16]  E. P. Paden,et al.  Developmental phonology: 18-29 months. , 1988, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[17]  J. Gierut.  Natural domains of cyclicity in phonological acquisition. , 1998, Clinical linguistics & phonetics.

[18]  E. M. Prather,et al.  Articulation development in children aged two to four years. , 1975, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[19]  Phyllis B. Arlt,et al.  A Comparative Study of Articulation Acquisition as Based on a Study of 240 Normals, Aged Three to Six , 1976 .

[20]  M. Vihman,et al.  Individual differences in phonological development: ages one and three years. , 1987, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[21]  M. Elbert,et al.  Generalization following the remediation of early- and later-developing consonant clusters. , 1984, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[22]  C. Stoel-Gammon.  Normal and Disordered Phonology in Two-Year-Olds. , 1991 .

[23]  L D Shriberg,et al.  Articulation testing versus conversational speech sampling. , 1992, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[24]  H W Catts,et al.  Simplification of /s/ + stop consonant clusters: a developmental perspective. , 1984, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[25]  L. Leonard,et al.  Intra-word phonological variability in young children , 1982, Journal of Child Language.

[26]  K W Kenney,et al.  Articulation development in preschool children: consistency of productions. , 1986, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[27]  Beth L. Wellman,et al.  Speech sounds of young children , 1931 .

[28]  E. K. Sander.  When are speech sounds learned? , 1972, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[29]  Raymond D. Kent,et al.  Anatomical and neuromuscular maturation of the speech mechanism: evidence from acoustic studies. , 1976, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[30]  D. Crystal.  Towards a ‘bucket’ theory of language disability: Taking account of interaction between linguistic levels , 1987 .

[31]  P. Grunwell.  The development of phonology: a descriptive profile , 1981 .

[32]  M. Ball,et al.  The Phonetic Transcription of Disordered Speech , 1996 .

[33]  E. Kirkpatrick,et al.  Prevalence of Articulation Errors in New South Wales Primary School Pupils , 1984 .

[34]  Charles A. Ferguson.  Individual differences in language learning. , 1989 .

[35]  S Nittrouer,et al.  The emergence of mature gestural patterns is not uniform: evidence from an acoustic study. , 1993, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[36]  M. Vihman.  Variable paths to early word production , 1993 .

[37]  Laurence B. Leonard,et al.  Individual differences in early child phonology , 1980, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[38]  A. Cruttenden.  Gimson's Pronunciation of English , 1994 .

[39]  W. Haynes,et al.  The effects of phonetic context and linguistic complexity on /s/ misarticulation in children. , 1982, Journal of communication disorders.

[40]  A Study of Phonological Processes Exhibited by 3-, 4-, and 5-Year-Old Children , 1986 .

[41]  S. Mcleod,et al.  The effect of sampling condition on children's productions of consonant clusters. , 1994, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[42]  Diane M. Austin,et al.  The speech disorders classification system (SDCS): extensions and lifespan reference data. , 1997, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[43]  A. French.  The systematic acquisition of word forms by a child during the first-fifty-word stage , 1989, Journal of Child Language.

[44]  P. Benoit.  Formal coherence production in children's discourse , 1982 .

[45]  Diane Austin,et al.  The percentage of consonants correct (PCC) metric: extensions and reliability data. , 1997, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[46]  M Donahue,et al.  Phonological constraints on the emergence of two-word utterances , 1986, Journal of Child Language.

[47]  L. Shriberg,et al.  Phonological disorders III: a procedure for assessing severity of involvement. , 1982, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[48]  S. B. Chin,et al.  Consonant clusters in disordered speech: constraints and correspondence patterns , 1992, Journal of Child Language.

[49]  D. Ingram.  Phonological Disability in Children , 1976 .

[50]  Barbara Williams Hodson,et al.  Phonological Processes Which Characterize Unintelligible and Intelligible Speech in Early Childhood , 1981 .

[51]  Marlys A. Macken,et al.  Developmental reorganization of phonology: A hierarchy of basic units of acquisition , 1979 .

[52]  Gail P. Scukanec,et al.  Profiling the phonological abilities of 2-year-olds: a longitudinal investigation , 1997 .

[53]  E. Paynter,et al.  Articulatory Sound: Acquisition of Two-Year-Old Children , 1974 .

[54]  R. Hanson,et al.  Achievements of young children on items of the Griffiths scales: 1980 compared with 1960. , 1987, Child: care, health and development.

[55]  Marlys A. Macken,et al.  Chapter 8 – RETRACTED: ASPECTS OF THE ACQUISITION OF STOP SYSTEMS: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE , 1980 .

[56]  R. Hanson,et al.  Achievement of infants on items of the Griffiths scales: 1980 compared with 1950. , 1985, Child: care, health and development.

[57]  A. B. Smit,et al.  Phonologic error distributions in the Iowa-Nebraska Articulation Norms Project: word-initial consonant clusters. , 1993, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[58]  Sharynne McLeod,et al.  Normal Acquisition of Consonant Clusters , 2001 .

[59]  R. Paul,et al.  Associations between phonology and syntax in speech-delayed children. , 1982, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[60]  A. B. Smit,et al.  The Iowa Articulation Norms Project and Its Nebraska Replication , 1990 .

[61]  C. A. Ferguson,et al.  WORDS AND SOUNDS IN EARLY LANGUAGE ACQUISITION , 1975 .

[62]  D. Olmsted.  Out of the mouth of babes : earliest stages in language learning , 1971 .

[63]  J. Locke,et al.  Babbling and early speech: continuity and individual differences , 1989 .