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Phonological processes

What is a phonological process?   Speech sounds are complex to say and sometimes little ones can have difficulty producing them accurately until they are more developed. They tend to replace these “tricky” sounds with ones that are easier for them to say.  We call these substitutions phonological processes. Normally children will grow out of these by a certain age.  Below is a guide for you on the most common phonological processes:

Substitution/process Description Example Age when typical child stops process
Reduplication When a complete (or incomplete) syllable is repeated e.g. baba for bottle Between 2 – 3 yrs
Affrication When a non-affricate sound is replaced with an affricate(ch or j) Joor for door 3 yrs
Final consonant deletion When the last consonant in the word is left off Child says “roe” instead of “road” 3 yrs
Fronting When a sound normally produced at the back of the mouth is produced further forward in the mouth Tup instead of cup 3 ½ yrs
Backing When a sound normally produced at the front of the mouth is produced further back Child says “gog” instead of “dog” This is very unusual and when we observe this process it is often an indicator of a severe phonological difficulty
Stopping When a fricative sound like f or s, or an affricate sound like ch or j is replaced with a plosive sound such as p or b Stopping /f/ fish → tish

 

Stopping /s/        soap → dope

Stopping /v/ very→ berry

 

Stopping /z/ zoo → doo

Stopping ‘sh’        shop = dop

 

Stopping ‘j’ jump → dump

Stopping ‘ch’  chair → tare

Stopping voiceless ‘th’ thing → ting

Stopping voiced ‘th’ them → dem

 

3 yrs

 

3 yrs

 

3 yrs 6 months

 

3 yrs 6 months

4 yrs 6 months

 

 

4 yrs 6 months

 

4 yrs 6 months

 

5 yrs

 

5 yrs

Weak syllable deletion When the weak syllable in a word is deleted Banana becomes nana 4 yrs
Initial consonant deletion When the initial sound is left off of the word “bunny” → “unny” This is very unusual and when we observe this process it is often an indicator of a severe phonological delay
Cluster reduction when a consonant in a cluster of sounds is left out “plane” → “pane”

 

4 yrs (without s)

5 yrs (in s clusters)

Gliding When an r sound becomes a w or y sound and an l sound becomes a w or y sound “robot” → “wobot”

“yellow” →”lellow”

6 yrs