Neologism

SPEECH & LANGUAGE

A Parent ’s Shor t Guide to Developmental Phonet ic and Phonological Disorders

Natasha Berryman • Ferris State University

i

CREATED FOR ENGL 380

PROF: DR. SANDY BALKEMA

SPRING, 2010

FERRIS STATE UNIVERSIT Y

01. I ntroduc t ion

02. The Bas ics (Speech and Language)

03. Phonet ic Development

06. Phonological Development

07. Speech Percept ion

07. Speech Produc t ion

12. Types of Disorders

13. Therapy

15. Reference L ist

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

i i

1 A PARENT ’S GUIDE TO

Humans use speech and language to articulate the thoughts, ideas, and emotions they

experience on a day-to-day basis. It is a component of our lives that seems as natural

— and as important — as breathing. But when your child struggles with a process most

take for granted, you can find yourself completely overwhelmed by the abstract qualities

speech and language suddenly seem to take on.

The old cliche is “knowledge is power,” and while this may be true, knowledge is also

capable of giving comfort and confidence to its beholder — two characteristics that

parents seldom feel they have in abundance while taking measures to address a medical

or social struggle their child is facing.

The sections that make up the bulk of this informational guide were written to define

and discuss the two components of speech and language. The aim of this guide as a

whole was to ensure that as a parent or guardian, you have a complete understanding of

the basics of phonetics and phonolgy as you work to tackle the speech impairment that

your child faces — to equip you with knowledge that has the ability to produce comfort,

confidence, and yes, even a little power as you work to protect, care for, and make a

better future for your little one.

INTRODUC TION

PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS 2

As a parent or guardian whose child is struggling with speech and language in

some way, you should understand the basics of the two concepts and all that

they include. This section explains what speech and language are in addition to

discussing the components that comprise each.

Speech acts as the most common mechanism through which humans express language,

and is most often referred to as “talking” or “speaking;” humans, however, can also express

language through a variety of ways besides this verbal one, including using hand and

body gestures and through written mediums (National Institute on Deafness and Other

Communication Disorders, 2000).

Language acts as a source of guidelines for humans when they speak, giving them

a common place from which they can draw the conventions and standard practices

for sharing the thoughts, ideas, and emotions they have (National Institute on

Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 2000). Every language is guided by

a unique set of phonological guidelines.

When your child learns to talk, he must first learn how to make the individual speech

sounds (phonemes) of their language and then he learns to organize the sounds

into specific orders to form words (Bowen, 1998). This two-tier approach to language

development is important to be aware of because the diagnosis of speech and language

disorders that a specialist makes are based on it.

THE BASICS

SPEECH/

LANGUAGE


The term used by speech-language pathologists (SLP’s) to refer to the mechanical act

of moving the lips, tongue and other parts of the vocal tract to produce consonant and

vowel sounds is known as phonetic development (Bowen, 1998). When your child is

struggling with language, specifically with vocalizing it through speech, then she is said

to have a phonetic disorder; this simply means that she is not making the speech sounds

appropriate for her age and dialect (Bowen, 1998).

There are three distinct areas of phonetics that are studied by SLP’s that can play a role

in the diagnosis of a phonetic disorder; the first is acoustic phonetics (Lahey, 1988).

Acoustic phonetics deals primarily with the physical properties of speech sounds made

by the human vocal tract (Lahey, 1988). The second, auditory phonetics, is concerned

with examining how humans perceive speech sounds, specifically with how people are

able to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds in their environment, and how they

then interpret these speech sounds (Lahey, 1988). The third and most important to SLP’s,

articulatory phonetics, is concerned with how the vocal tract is used to produce speech

sounds; it also investigates the ways in which speech sounds are combined and vary from

others (Lahey, 1988).

PHONE TIC

DE VELOPMENT

Sometimes your child may fail to

make speech sounds appropriate

for her age and dialect. When this

occurs, she is more than likely

suffering from a phonetic disorder.

PHONE TIC DISORDERS 4

An Australian speech-language pathologist, Meredith Kilminster and her colleagues,

studied the sequence of speech sound development in children in 1978 (Bowen, 1998).

They were able to deduce that there are definite stages of development in which children

should demonstrate specific phonetic behaviors (Bowen, 1998).

Table 1, which can be found on page 5, summarizes the norms for gradual

acquisition (development) of the consonants in English that Kilminster and her

colleagues were able to identify. The first column lists the approximate age by

which most children are able to produce the sound(s) found in the second column

with 75% accuracy (Bowen, 1998). The third column explains the mechanical

manner in which each speech sound is produced, focusing on the “voiced” or

“voiceless” characteristics of each.

When humans produce what Kilminster and the table call “voiced” consonants,

their vocal cords vibrate (Bowen, 1998). On the other hand, when “voiceless”

consonants are produced, the vocal cords do not vibrate; these are both normal

processes of phonetic articulation, as are the rest of the behaviors described in the

table (Bowen, 1998).

Without help from an outside

source, it is difficult to know what

phonetic behaviors are normal

and which are abnormal; it isn’t

something that is inherently

known.

PHONE TIC

DE VELOPMENT


Table 1 Normal Phonetic Development Average age by which the

speech sound is correctSpeech sound Manner in which the

speech sound is produced3 years h as in he

zh as in measurey as in yesw as in weng as in singm as in men as in nop as in upk as in cart as in tob as in beg as in god as in do

Voiceless fricativeVoiceless fricativeVoiced glideVoiced glideVoiced nasalVoiced nasalVoiced nasalVoiceless stopVoiceless stopVoiceless stopVoiced stopVoiced stopVoiced stop

3 years, 6 months f as in if Voiceless fricative4 years l as in lay

sh as in shech as in chew

Voiced liquidVoiceless fricativeVoiceless affricate

4 years, 6 months j as in jaws as in soz as in is

Voiced affricateVoiceless fricativeVoiced fricative

5 years r as in red Voiced liquid6 years v as in veggie Voiced fricative8 years th as in this Voiced fricative8 years, 6 months th as in this Voiceless fricative

PHONE TIC

DE VELOPMENT

Adapted from Bowen, C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide for families and teachers. Melbourne: ACER Press


Phonology, through the combination of six key elements, refers to the sound system

of a language (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders,

2000). These element include phonemes, the most basic, distinctive units of speech

sound by which morphemes, words and sentences are represented; morphology, the

patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflection, derivation,

and composition; syntax, sentence formation; semantics, word and sentence meaning

or interpretation; prosody the stress, rhythm, and intonation patterns of an utterance;

and pragmatics, the effective use of language (National Institute on Deafness and Other

Communication Disorders, 2000).

Phonological development is a term used by professionals to refer to the process

that goes on in the brain of your child and adults who are working to organize the

speech sounds they learned during phonetic development. Children learn that there

are contrasting speech sounds that make up their language; during phonological

development, children learn how to perceive the differences between these speech

sounds in addition to learning how to produce these differences in a coherent manner

(Bowen, 1998). When your child is struggling to use the correct contrasting speech sound

in a particular instance, he is either experiencing a phonological deviation or he has a

phonological disorder (Bowen, 1998).

PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENT

Sometimes your child may fail

to use the correct contrasting

speech sound when he talks.

When this occurs, he may be

suffering from a phonological

disorder.


As stated previously, one part of the normal phonological development of your child is

her ability to perceive differences in speech sounds (Bowen, 1998). Speech perception

involves the process of extracting and storing “acoustic cues … in sensory memory and

then [mapping them] onto linguistic information” (Lane, 2008). Some define speech

perception as the “process of imposing a meaningful perceptual experience on an

otherwise meaningless speech input,” but a speech-language pathologist will use the

former most definition as they evaluate your child’s ability to perceive speech (Massaro,

2001).

The contrasts in sounds that children and adults are aware of and use are learned in

infancy – the human child is able to perceive these sound distinctions well before they

are able to say actual words correctly (Bowen, 1998). This is illustrated in the child who

knows when you are talking about the dog’s “tail” that they are tugging on, versus the

“mail” that they insistent on putting in their mouths.

The second part of the normal phonological development involves your child’s ability to

reproduce the different speech sounds he has become familiar with; this process is known

as speech production. By the time that your child begins to use real words to convey

information to others, he has stored an amazing amount of information about sound

contrasts in his mind (Bowen, 1998). When he speaks, however, you notice he speaks in

a “child-like” manner, omitting words, or pronouncing them with rounded or swallowed

sounds; in short, he does not “sound” like an adult.

PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENT

SPEECH

PERCEPTION

SPEECH

PRODUC TION


To say that the slightest deviation from the behaviors or timelines presented here is a sign

of a phonological disorder is a grave assumption on the part of both the parent and the

specialist. Research has shown that just as there are normal and expected behaviors that

are typical of your child as she grows, there are also normal and expected phonological

“errors” that will be characteristic and normal of your growing child (Bowen, 1998).

When she is producing speech sounds, you may simply think of her “errors” as random

mistakes that she makes because all children make them (Bowen, 1998). Linguists,

however, have been able to deduce that what parents often label “pronunciation

errors” are actually normal and predictable non-adult speech patterns that all children

experience as they mature (Bowen, 1998). These same speech patterns and simplifications

made by your child at a young age, however, are also the patterns SLP’s look for when

diagnosing developmental phonological disorders in older children who should not make

these speech patterns (Bowen, 1998). The next table, Table 2, which can be found on the

page 9, lists and describes some common, but normal phonological deviations made by

children in speech development.

PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENT

Not all of the speech errors

you hear your child make

are abnormal or a cause for

concern; some of them are a

normal part of the phonological

development they experience

as they mature in age.


Table 2 Some Phonological Deviations in Normal Speech DevelopmentPhonological Deviation Example Description

Context sensitive voicing “Pig” pronounced “big”“Car”pronounced “gar”

A voiceless sound is replaced by a voiced sound. In the examples giv-

en, /p/ is replaced by /b/, and /k/ is replaced by /g/. Other examples

might include /t/ being replaced by /d/, or /f/ being replaced by /v/.

Word-final devoicing “Red” pronounced “ret”“Bag” pronounced “bak”

A final voiced consonant in a word is replaced by a voiceless conso-nant. Here, /d/ has been replaced by /t/ and /g/ has been replaced

by /k/.

Final consonant deletion “Home” pronounced “hoe”

“Calf” pronounceD “cah”

The final consonant in the word is omitted. In these examples, /m/ is omitted (or deleted) from “home”

and /f/ is omitted from “calf”.

Velar fronting “Kiss” pronounced “tiss”“Give” pronounced “div”

“Wing” pronounced “win”

A velar consonant, that is a sound that is normally made with the

middle of the tongue in contact with the palate towards the back of the mouth, is replaced with conso-nant produced at the front of the

mouth. Hence /k/ is replaced by /t/, /g/ is replaced by /d/, and ‘ng’ is

replaced by /n/.

Palatal fronting “Ship” pronounced “sip”“Measure” pronounced

“mezza”

The fricative consonants ‘sh’ and ‘zh’ are replaced by fricatives that are made further forward on the palate, towards the front teeth. ‘sh’ is replaced by /s/, and ‘zh’ is

replaced by /z/.

PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENT


Phonological Deviation Example DescriptionConsonant harmony “Cupboard” pronounced

“pubbed”“dog” is pronounced

“gog”

The pronunciation of the whole word is influenced by the presence of a particular sound in the word. In these examples: (1) the /b/ in “cupboard” causes the /k/ to be

replaced /p/, which is the voiceless cognate of /b/, and (2) the /g/ in

“dog” causes /d/ to be replaced by /g/.

Cluster reduction “Spider” is pronounced as “pider”

“Ant” is pronounced as “at”

Consonant clusters occur when two or three consonants occur in a sequence in a word. In cluster

reduction part of the cluster is omit-ted. In these examples /s/ has been deleted form “spider” and /n/ from

“ant”.

Stopping “Funny” is pronounced as “punny”

“Jump” is pronounced as “dump

A fricative consonant (/f/ /v/ /s/ /z/, ‘sh’, ‘zh’, ‘th’ or /h/), or an affricate consonant (‘ch’ or /j/) is replaced

by a stop consonant (/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ or /g/). In these examples, /f/ in

“funny” is replaced by /p/, and ‘j’ in “jump” is replaced by /d/.

Even with all this in mind, there are some “red-flag” behaviors that you should be aware of

as you monitor your child’s speech and language development. If an infant, for instance,

does not respond to sound, or does not vocalize sounds, then you have cause for concern

(Nelson, 2008).

PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENTTable 2 continued

Adapted from Bowen, C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide for families and teachers. Melbourne: ACER Press


PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENTThere are several behaviors that a child between the age of 12 and 24 months should

demonstrate; if, however, he is not, or you observe him demonstrating any of the

behaviors in the bulleted list below, you should seek the opinion and possible diagnosis

or opinion of a professional speech-language pathologist.

Such behaviors include (Nelson, 2008):

• failing to use gestures, such as pointing or waving good-bye, by 12 months

• prefering gestures over vocalizations to communicate by 18 months

• having trouble imitating sounds by 18 months

• having difficulty understanding simple verbal requests

• only imitatating speech or actions; not producing words or phrases spontaneously

• saying only certain sounds or words repeatedly and not using oral language to

communicate more than his or her immediate needs

• being unable to follow simple directions

• having an unusual tone of voice (such as raspy or nasal sounding)

• being more difficult to understand than expected for his or her age

As a general rule of thumb, your child’s speech should be coherent at least

BEHAVIORS

TO MONITOR


PHONOLOGICAL

DE VELOPMENThalf the time by age two; it should be 75% coherent by age three (Nelson, 2008).

By four years old, your child should be, for the most part, completely understood,

even by people who don’t know your child (Nelson, 2008).

Having an understanding of several broad categories of speech disorders can help you to

understand a diagnosis your child’s therapist makes (American Speech-Language Hearing

Association, 2010):

• Articulation disorders are characterized by the production of incorrect

syllables; the incorrect pronunciation is so severe that others are

unable to understand what the child is saying.

• Fluency disorders include conditions such as stuttering, which is

characterized by a disrupted speech patterns.

• Resonance or voice disorders are characterized by difficulties with the

pitch, volume, or quality of the voice; often, the listener is distracted by

them. These types of disorders may also cause your child pain.

• Receptive language disorders are characterized by a difficulty of the child to

understand or process language.

• Expressive language disorders are characterized by difficulty arranging

words, a limited vocabulary, or the inability to use language socially.

If you notice that your child is displaying abnormal speech or language patterns or it is

GENERAL

T YPES OF

DISORDERS

There are several broad

categories of speech

disorders, but having a

general understanding of

these categories will help you

to understand the diagnosis

your child’s therapist makes.

THERAPY

brought to your attention by a his teacher, then it would be wise to seek the help of a

professional for early intervention. Just as with any other health or behavioral condition,

early detection and treatment is a key component to a speedy and comprehensive

recovery.

If it is determined by your speech-language pathologist that your child would indeed

benefit from their guided treatment, you may find yourself wondering what this type of

therapy entails. To start, you should know that this kind of therapy usually takes place

one-on-one with the specialist, but can also occur in a small group setting, or in the

classroom depending upon the disorder (Nelson, 2010).

The SLP can also use several strategies including the following (Nelson, 2010):

• Language intervention activities allow the therapist to use pictures, books, objects,

or ongoing events to stimulate language development. The therapist talks to and

plays with your child, demonstrating correct pronunciation for him while using

repetition exercises to build speech and language skills.

• Articulation therapy allows the therapist to model correct sound and syllable

production during games and other activities. Games are age-specific and

sometimes involve the therapist physically showing your child how to make certain

sounds.

If you are interested in learning more specific information about the type of therapy



THERAPY

speech-language pathologists use, contact one in your area. If you’re unsure of how to

go about finding one, visit the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s (ASHA)

website and use its “Find a Professional” tool.

www.asha.org

REFERENCES

15

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2010). Child speech and language. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/ChildSandL.htm

Bowen, C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide for families and teachers. Melbourne: ACER Press.

Lahey, M. (1988). ‘What is language?’ in Language Disorders and Language Development. London: Collier Macmillan.

Lane, D. (2008). Speech perception. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m11175/2.9/

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2000). Speech and language developmental milestones. Retrieved from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/speecha dlanguage.asp

Nelson, A. (2008). Delayed speech or language development. Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/ parent/emotions/behavior/not_talk.html#

Nelson, A. (2010). Speech language therapy. Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/ ill/speech_therapy.html#

Massaro, D.W. (2001). Speech perception in N.M. Smesler & P.B. Baltes (Eds.) & W. Kintsch (Section Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (p.14870). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier.

SPEECH & LANGUAGENatasha Berr yman | Ferr is State Univers i t y | Spr ing, 2010

Neologism

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