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Sunday, January 10, 2021
5:35 PM
Difference between phonemic contrast and
phonetic contrast
Consonants are described in terms of the
ir place, manner, and voicing characteris
tics. Place refers to place of articulation,
such as location of articulation. Manner i
s the manner in which a sound is articula
ted. And voicing refers to the presence o
r absence of voicing. And these are impo
rtant concepts, because they underlie the
way we think about how consonants are
produced, and that's important in order f
or us to move on to the next step-- which
is understanding distorted speech.
So in terms of place of articulation, this r
efers to the constriction location. The pla
ce can be made at the lips, which is refer
red to as bilabial. Place can also be refer
red to as labiodental. And that's when co
ntact is between the lips and the teeth-- l
inguadental, tongue and teeth-- linguaalv
eolar, tongue and alveolar ridge. And so
what you can see that I'm doing is I'm m
oving from the most anterior position, w
hich is the lips, back in posteriorly in the
oral cavity. And so at the point where w
e get to the linguaalveolar point of articu
lation, we're talking about that tongue/al
veolar ridge contact, such as for sounds l
ike T and D, S and Z.
Moving one step further back is linguap
alatal, which is tongue and hard palate.
And then one more step back, linguavela
r, tongue and soft palate-- such as "kuh,"
"guh," "ng." And then finally, moving a
ll the way down to the level of the glottis
, where a sound such as "huh" could be
produced, or even a glottal stop as in "uh
."
Now, manner of production is how a spe
aker might alter airflow through the oral
cavity. And so we can use different kind
s of constrictions to do that. The most ba
sic is a stop, or plosive phoneme. And to
produce a stop, a speaker needs to comp
letely block air flow in the vocal tract. A
nd that can be with a complete closure, s
uch as by bringing the lips completely to
gether, building up air behind the lips-which is called intraoral air pressure, we'
re increasing intraoral air pressure-- and
then releasing that. So P and
B are examples of stop plosives.
Fricatives are a little bit more complicat
ed because the speaker has to form a nar
row constriction that air is going to pass
through. And that narrow constriction ca
n occur at different points, at different pl
aces of articulation. So for example, if n
ow
a constriction occurs at the contact betw
een the tongue and the alveolar ridge, th
at would be a linguaalveolar phoneme, t
hat's a fricative-- such as an S.
Now, affricates are a combination of sto
p and fricative. And so we can have that
complete stop flow of air immediately fo
llowed by that constriction, which is the
fricative part. So the sounds, "ch" and "j
uh" are the only affricates in English tha
t involve that stoppage followed by that
narrow constriction.
Nasals are something quite different. An
Week 1 Page 1
1. PHONETIC= MOTOR based problem.
Ex. LISP
a. Kid CONSISTENTLY produces the 's'
sound inconsistently if they have lisp
2. PHONEMIC CONTRAST IS PRESERVED.
a. Kid is not going to say 't' for 's'. They
are going to either produce 's' with the
front of the mouth like "thoh" OR the
SIDES of the mouth like "THUH"
3. PHONEMIC= phonological rules.
The kid may actually have difficulty using
phonemes to discriminate meaning.
And typically it's rule based so that kid may
be able to produce the T in the initial position
but can't produce it in the final position.
to differentiate or to determine if this
phonemic contrast is preserved. We use
something called minimal pairs. And the first
thing we do is we want to do a minimal pair
discrimination task.
• I want to hear if the kid can perceive the
difference. Can they hear the difference. And
so I may show them-- if they have a hard
time with producing the voiceless p and the
voice to be right 'p' and 'b' exactly the same
sound just the ones voiceless. The other ones
voice.
• I may show them a picture of a pair and a
bear.
• And then cover my mouth and say, point to
the pair point to the bear. I just want to hear
that the kid can hear the difference
• Because if they can't hear the difference, then
they're not gonna be able to produce the
difference
fricative part. So the sounds, "ch" and "j
uh" are the only affricates in English tha
t involve that stoppage followed by that
narrow constriction.
Nasals are something quite different. An
d in nasal production, there's coupling b
etween the oral and nasal cavities, which
simply means that the velopharyngeal p
ort is open, allowing the sound wave to r
esonate not only through the oral cavity,
but also through the nasal cavity. And in
English, we have three nasals-- "mm," "
nn," M-N, and "ng."
Glides are a little bit more complicated,
because there is a gradually changing art
iculatory shape. Laterals are different fro
m these other sounds because there's a cl
osure at midline at the linguaalveolar poi
nt, such as for "ul," but there's not closur
e at the sides of the tongue. And then rh
otics are involved when a tongue being b
unged typically at the center of the oral c
avity. Although in English, there can be
several slightly different tongue position
s to produce rhotics, and I'm referring to
consonantal R.
And then lastly in this pair of place, man
ner,
and voicing, we come to voicing. And v
oicing is really binary. Sounds are either
voiced or voiceless. And when phonem
es are voiceless, they're produced with t
he vocal folds open. And there's no voca
l
fold vibration. In contrast, voiced phone
mes involve vocal fold vibration. The vo
cal folds are very closely approximated t
o one another, and that's so air flow will
move through them. They'll then begin t
o vibrate and produce voicing.
Now, the way that I think is easiest to be
gin or to continue your thinking of place
ment or voicing-- and I say continue, be
cause I know that you've heard these con
cepts before-- is to pair consonant cogna
tes together. It's just simply easier to rem
ember these ideas. And so cognates are c
onsonants that differ with respect to voic
ing. But their place and manner features
are identical.
And so P and
B are cognates, because they're both bila
bial plosives. But B is voiced, P is voicel
ess. Similarly, S and Z are cognates beca
use they're both linguaaveolar fricatives.
But S is voiceless, Z
is voiced. And then of course, our only t
wo affricates in English, "ch" and "juh"
are "ch" is voiceless, "juh" is voiced. So
as your continuing to refine your underst
anding of place, manner,
and voicing, come back to this notion, b
ecause you should be thinking and group
ing these sounds in pairs whenever possi
ble. Because not every phoneme has a c
ognate, as you'll see in the next chart.
So I really like this chart, because it will
help you visualize how to group these so
unds together in terms of their place, ma
nner, and voicing characteristics. So let's
look at this together. So for example, P
and B are bilabial stops. They're both gr
ouped here. The phonemes in the slightl
y gray position are the voiced phonemes.
And the ones right next to them are thei
r cognate pairs.
So you can see here, for instance, how P
and
B are cognates, but M does not have a c
ognate pair. But this is a great reference
for you to come back to in order to make
Week 1 Page 2
So you can see here, for instance, how P
and
B are cognates, but M does not have a c
ognate pair. But this is a great reference
for you to come back to in order to make
sure that you're understanding clearly th
e place, manner, and voicing characterist
ics of each phoneme or phoneme pair.
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So there are several ways in which we can d
iscuss consonant position. And because clini
cians will sometimes use a variety of differe
nt terms to describe consonant position, I'm
going to go through all three with you.
So first is thinking about consonant position
within a word. And this is probably the mos
t common way of describing it, often seen a
nd used by clinicians. And that means that
we will distinguish between the initial positi
on of a consonant in a word. Meaning the fir
st consonant in the word. The medial positio
n of a consonant, a consonant that's in the m
iddle of a word somewhere. And the final p
osition of a consonant, which is a consonant
at the end of a word. So that's within the wo
rd.
Now we could also think about the concept
position within a syllable. And we're going t
o do a lot of that in this course. When we thi
nk about constant position within a syllable,
we first need to take a word and break it up
into syllables. And then identify where a co
nsonant is in relation to that syllable within t
he word. So SIWI means syllable initial wor
d initial. Simply first consonant at the begin
ning of a syllable that's at the beginning of a
word. And I'll give you an example coming
up.
Syllable initial word within, and that means
it begins a syllable, but that syllable begins i
n the middle of a word. It's not the first sylla
ble of a word.
Syllable final word final is when the conson
ant comes at the end of a syllable that closes
off the word. It's the end of the word.
And syllable final word within is simply the
end of a syllable, but that is in the middle o
f the word still. And you'll see this more cle
arly very soon.
But before we get there, we could also think
about consonant position in relation to the v
owel. And so we describe consonants as bei
ng prevocalic if they come before a vowel.
So the first sound in a word, the first conson
ant in a word, is prevocalic. Postvocalic is f
ollowing a vowel. And so the final consona
nt in a word is postvocalic. And intervocalic
are consonants that are in the middle of a w
ord because they're surrounded by vowels.
So let me show you how this would look. W
e have two words here-- top and suitcase. T
op is simple, because it is a CVC, right? If
we think about our way of describing the co
nsonant and
vowel structure. And since top is CVC, the t
is syllable initial word initial. And the p is s
yllable final word final. Closes out the word
. Simple enough, right?
Now suitcase gets a little bit more complicat
ed, because there are two syllables in this co
mpound word-- suit case. And so s is syllabl
e initial word initial. The s at the end is sylla
ble final word final.
But these two phonemes in the middle are th
ought about differently. Now, if we only use
the terms initial, medial, and final they wou
ld both fall somewhere in the medial positio
n. But if we want to be a little more descript
ive and we break this down into syllables, t
closes out the first syllable. So it's syllable fi
nal word within. Whereas the k is syllable i
nitial, but it's word within because it's the be
ginning of the second syllable. And so k wo
uld be syllable initial word within. Right?
So this is a really nice, clear way to illustrat
e how to use consonant position, not only in
relation to the word, but also in relation to t
he syllable within which it falls.
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uld be syllable initial word within. Right?
So this is a really nice, clear way to illustrat
e how to use consonant position, not only in
relation to the word, but also in relation to t
he syllable within which it falls.
Let's review the concept of distinctive featur
es. Distinctive features are phonetic charact
eristics of a group of sounds. And we use th
ese different features to distinguish sounds f
rom one another. And what that simply mea
ns is that we use phonemes to describe soun
ds differently. But we can take those phone
mes and break them down into a group of fe
atures that will distinguish those phonemes f
rom one another. It's really quite interesting.
So each phoneme is evaluated on a twovalue system. Either a distinctive feature is
present or it's absent. And we can use a plus
sign or a
1 to indicate whether it's present, a dash or a
0 to indicate if a feature is absent.
So let's first go through major class features.
And as
we're doing this, I'm going to guide you to t
hink about how they relate to the notions of
place manner voicing. Right? I
told you that before, and these ideas are goi
ng to keep coming back.
So when we think of major class features, w
e're specifying features that distinguish cons
onants and vowels, obstruents and sonorants
. And so first up is the notion of syllabic. Pl
us syllabic sounds are sounds that are going
to form the nucleus of a syllable. And so a v
owel or perhaps a syllabic consonant would
both be plus syllabic.
Now, this is different from the way we migh
t describe consonant sounds. And we'll use t
he term "consonantal" to describe sounds th
at are produced with a narrow constriction o
f the vocal tract, or perhaps even just a com
plete constriction in the vocal tract. So all c
onsonants are plus consonantal except for gl
ides, because they're more syllabic, kind of l
ike semivowels.
Sonorant. The word "sonorant" means that t
he vocal tract is set up to allow for spontane
ous voicing. And we know that
that only occurs for vowels-- so all vowels a
re sonorant-- for glides, liquids, and nasals.
And so when we think about these notions o
f syllabic or consonantal or sonorant, they re
late kind of to manner of production.
But there are also place features that we refe
r to when
we think of distinctive features. And these d
escribe the place of articulation. And so a di
stinctive feature, the labial feature, indicates
whether sounds are made at the level of the
lips and what might be going on there, speci
fically.
So for instance, plus round means there's pr
otrusion of the lips with some narrowing at t
he corners of the mouth. And plus labiodent
al infers that this sound is made with only o
ne lip. And so we can further distinguish so
unds from one another by indicating perhap
s whether they're plus labial or within that pl
us round or plus labiodental.
Another place feature is coronal. And coron
al sounds are made at or around the area of t
he alveolar ridge or even slightly farther for
ward. These are phonemes that are also ante
Week 1 Page 5
us round or plus labiodental.
Another place feature is coronal. And coron
al sounds are made at or around the area of t
he alveolar ridge or even slightly farther for
ward. These are phonemes that are also ante
rior in the oral cavity. And so place doesn't
only refer to maybe that precise place of arti
culation, but we do try to think more broadl
y about whether sounds are anterior as oppo
sed to further posterior.
So that's a segue into the term "dorsal," whe
re phonemes are made basically at the back
of the mouth. And this can be with the tong
ue body raised or tongue body lowered. And
so we use the terms plus back, plus high, or
even plus low to describe sounds that are m
ade in the back of the oral cavity and where
the tongue position might be as those sound
s are formed.
So consonantal and vocalic-- it refers and m
akes us think about where the constriction is
in the vocal tract. Or refers to, rather, not w
here, but the type of constriction in the voca
l tract, where for consonantal, there's a reall
y firm constriction. It might be complete or
narrow. And vocalic is much more open.
Continuant and interrupted are whether sou
nds are produced with continuous airflow m
ade in a steady state, as in F and
V, S and Z, or whether they're interrupted so
unds that have some kind of a blockage of a
ir, such as P
and B. And so this grouping, again, refers m
ore to manner than anything else.
Sonorant are sounds that allow the air strea
m to pass unimpeded, as I had mentioned ea
rlier. Vowels are sonorant. And we use this t
erm to distinguish from phonemes that have
more of a constriction. So vowels, glides, n
asals, and laterals and modified consonants,
these are all sonorant, because there's a mor
e open vocal tract. And we compare and con
trast that with sounds like stops, fricatives, a
nd affricates, that have some more firm clos
ure.
Strident phonemes. Strident sounds are nois
y sounds. And when a speaker is producing
a strident sound, there's some forcing of air t
hrough a small opening that results in that n
oisy quality. And so F and V, S
and Z, Sh, zh, tcha, are all examples of strid
ent phonemes. And just to clarify here, sh, z
h, tcha, the next phoneme is really the phon
eme ja, not the ya, just to clarify.
Lateral-- midline and air escapes laterally.
Nasals-- sounds in which air passes through
the nasal cavity. And then high versus low-again, coming back to tongue position.
And this is really important because when t
he tongue moves through the oral cavity, a h
igh sound is going to be differentiated from
a low sound. And we usually think of that n
eutral point as being the point somewhere in
the middle, where high would be above that
point for maybe a schwa. Low would be bel
ow that point for the schwa.
Also, more related to place is back versus a
nterior. And back refers to tongue position a
nd whether the phonemes are made with the
tongue retracted from that neutral position,
from that middle position, forward back. An
terior sounds that-- are made where the poin
t of constriction is anterior typically to the p
alatal point.
So "shuh" is a palatal phoneme. And we gen
erally think that sounds made in front of that
-- so that would include bilabials, labiodenta
ls, linguaalveolars, and linguadentals-- are all going t
o be anterior phonemes.
Just to get through a few more, coronal-- ro
Week 1 Page 6
-- so that would include bilabials, labiodenta
ls, linguaalveolars, and linguadentals-- are all going t
o be anterior phonemes.
Just to get through a few more, coronal-- ro
und, tense, and voiced. So for coronal, it's-again, think back to our place, manner, and
voicing descriptions. Coronal sounds are ma
de with the tongue blade raised typically in t
he lingua-alveolar area or around there.
Rounds sounds are made with the lips round
ed or protruded as an "oo" sound. And tense
phonemes are produced with a greater degr
ee of muscular tension. And we compare an
d contrast this with lax phonemes that don't
have that degree of tension.
And then, of course, voicing-- referring to s
ounds in which the vocal folds vibrate. So i
n some, these are features that you really jus
t need to sit through, review, and think abou
t. I realize that that material can be quite dry
. But the best way to make it functional is to
think about how these group of features rel
ate to place, manner, and voicing and which
feature links to which of those three.
And just to help you think about this a little
bit further, it could also help you to compar
e and contrast features. So for instance here,
if we are comparing P and Z-- very differen
t phonemes. But let's take a look at the featu
res associated with each and some, in partic
ular, features that distinguish them.
And so for one, we know they're both anteri
or phonemes, right? We could see that here- both anterior. But P
is labial. Z is not. And you can see that right
underneath anterior.
In terms of manner of production, they're qu
ite different because P is not continuant, but
z is. And then in terms of voicing, there are
also some pretty stark differences because
P is voiceless and Z is voiced.
And so while you can continue to go throug
h this on your own, the point is pretty clear.
And that is that we can take features and co
mpare and contrast them to one another.
Also important is to bring out your vowel q
uadrilateral. You have all seen this before. T
his is something that you have to really have
in your memory. And rather than telling yo
u to just go and memorize it, think about it r
eally conceptually.
And visualize the quadrilateral as the inside
of the oral cavity-- that's what it was design
ed to do-- where you've kind of got the front
of the oral cavity here. And this is the progr
ession from anterior to posterior. And so in
doing so, it will then quickly help you see h
ow "i" is a high front vowel. And that contra
sts with "ah," which is a low back vowel.
So earlier, when I was talking about high or
low in relation to the schwa, here's the schw
a. A high sound is produced above this. Lo
w sound is produced below. And that's a nic
e segue into distinctive features that describ
e vowels.
So vowels are going to be sonorant and voc
alic. They all are. But they'll differ in their c
avity features, as you just saw. So we have
high vowels, like "i," low vowels, like "ae,"
back vowels, and round vowels. And so imp
ortantly, those rounded vowels actually invo
lve lip rounding at the front of the oral cavit
y.
We talk about manner of articulation as tens
e versus lax. So some vowels involve more
muscular effort than others, as in "i." The ta
kehome message here is that there is certain pa
tterns that clearly distinguish vowels and co
nsonants. But when we are thinking about v
owels, remember, they're all voiced. They're
Week 1 Page 7
And tense phonemes are produced with a greater deg
ree of muscular tension. And we compare and contras
t this with lax phonemes that don't have that degree of
tension.
kehome message here is that there is certain pa
tterns that clearly distinguish vowels and co
nsonants. But when we are thinking about v
owels, remember, they're all voiced. They're
all nonnasalized. But they're influenced by what's a
round them, which is coarticulation.
And so, for instance, a nasal consonant next
to a vowel-- that vowel might take on some
slight nasal quality because of the surroundi
ng sounds. And that's a concept we'll get int
o more and more as we move through the co
urse.
Let's now define and describe the ter
m "speech sound disorders." Accordin
g to ASHA, the term "speech sound di
sorders" is now thought about as an u
mbrella term. You know, years ago, w
e often tried to distinguish-- and we st
ill do-- the difference between articula
tion disorders and phonological disor
ders. And so there's more consensus n
ow that there's this umbrella term call
ed "speech sound disorder" that really
encompasses both.
And so a speech sound disorder can o
ccur when speech intelligibility is infl
uenced by an issue with the way spee
ch is perceived; the actual motoric pro
duction of the sound, as in difficulty p
utting the lips together to produce a so
und-- and that's more articulation; the
phonological representation of a spee
ch sound or how sounds are combined
-- and that's the phonological or lingui
stic component; or maybe any combin
ation of the above.
And so we've really moved away fro
m entirely, completely separating arti
culation from phonology in that many
children have aspects of both type of
impairment. That's not to say that we
don't describe articulation of phonolo
gical issues, but more so acknowledge
that children can have elements of bo
th of these issues.
So a speech sound disorder can result
from a sensory impairment. When I ta
lked about the perceptual component,
I was talking about that sensory impai
rment. And we commonly see that in
hearing loss. Children can have a stru
Week 1 Page 8
from a sensory impairment. When I ta
lked about the perceptual component,
I was talking about that sensory impai
rment. And we commonly see that in
hearing loss. Children can have a stru
ctural impairment. Perhaps there's
a repaired lip, cleft lip, or repaired cle
ft palate. That would involve a structu
ral defect that was impaired.
Children can also have a motor impair
ment, and perhaps this is a child diagn
osed with childhood apraxia of speech
. That type of child would have aspect
s of a motor impairment. We also, tho
ugh, do see children who are diagnose
d with a given syndrome or some type
of conditionrelated impairment. So children with
Down syndrome are known to have c
ertain characteristics that might under
lie their speech production difficulties
. And then, of course, children can ha
ve a phonological impairment.
And when we think of phonology, ph
onology more broadly is something th
at happens at a linguistic level, at a hi
gher level, and the way that speech so
unds are the linguistic representation f
or sounds and how sounds are combin
ed. And so if there's any impairment a
t that level, that would be a phonologi
cal impairment.
Now, into thinking about speech soun
d disorders, I take a subsystems appro
ach. And this simply means that we're
not only thinking about what happens
at an articulatory level, but we're thin
king about the relationship between th
e speech subsystems. What does that
mean? It simply means that when we
speak, we speak on exhalation.
And so the respiratory system is invol
ved. The airflow then moves through t
he phonatory system. And there may
be vibrations. So sounds may be voice
d. They may be left unvoiced. And th
en, that sound wave moves through th
e vocal tract. So it goes through the re
sonatory system and then lastly, the ar
ticulation system. So it's really critical
to think of how these systems work t
ogether to understand how speech is p
roduced.
When we think of children with speec
h sound disorders, we then come back
to trying to understand where is the l
evel of breakdown. Is it in terms of re
spiration, phonation, resonance, articu
lation, or some combination of these d
ifferent areas? But if we don't begin b
y thinking about how speech involves
these subsystems, we cannot then get
to the point where we can identify th
e level of breakdown.
And so in doing so, and thinking abou
t level of breakdown, we're going to b
egin looking at ideological factors. So
is the underlying reason for the speec
h sound disorder organic, which mean
s is the difficulty related to some kind
of a neurological issue, maybe a struc
tural problem or some other kind of p
hysical issue? Or is this a functional p
roblem where we don't really know w
hy the child's speech is deviating from
what we'd see in typically developing
kids. So moving forward, we're going
to clearly distinguish between these t
wo ideological groups.
Week 1 Page 9
egin looking at ideological factors. So
is the underlying reason for the speec
h sound disorder organic, which mean
s is the difficulty related to some kind
of a neurological issue, maybe a struc
tural problem or some other kind of p
hysical issue? Or is this a functional p
roblem where we don't really know w
hy the child's speech is deviating from
what we'd see in typically developing
kids. So moving forward, we're going
to clearly distinguish between these t
wo ideological groups.
Let's begin by discussing organic impairme
nt. Our first ideological group. And so broa
dly, we can think of three categories. Perce
ptual-- that sensory, primarily hearing. Stru
ctural-- where there's some type of structura
l deformity or structural deficit. And then m
otor, which relates to some kind of a motor
impairment. And there are a variety of diffe
rent types.
So perceptual. Hearing loss. Children can h
ave-- or any individual can have-- a range o
f hearing loss. A conductive hearing loss is
when there is some type of, perhaps a malfo
rmation or an obstruction in either the outer
ear, ear canal, tympanic membrane, or midd
le ear. These are not inner ear issues.
And so, what we commonly see in children
is otitis media, or ear infections. So children
are prone to ear infections. Those ear infect
ions can vary in terms of the length of time
the infection is existing, in terms of the seve
rity of the infection.
And so, the influence on perception and pro
duction can vary greatly. So, while certainly
otitis media is not the only conductive hear
ing loss-- there are others that are listed her
e-- it probably is the most common thing th
at we do see in children. And that's the reas
on why we, in our interview, we ask a num
ber of questions related to the presence of e
ar infections or any of these other issues list
ed here, and whether they've been resolved.
Sensorineural hearing loss. A sensorineural
hearing loss is, in contrast to conductive-- c
onductive is a hearing loss that technically c
ould be improved or reversed. Sensorineura
l hearing loss is something quite different. T
he onset can be before birth, at the time of b
irth, or after birth. The causes can be conge
nital or acquired.
And so, what's key here is that really the ag
e of onset. So for instance, if a child is born
with a sensorineural hearing loss, they've be
en missing that sensory input, that perceptu
al input, all through their development. And
this is different than, say, an adult, who beg
ins losing their hearing once they have acqu
ired language.
So again, the influence on perception and pr
oduction can vary a lot depending on the se
verity of the loss, the cause of the loss, as w
ell as the onset of the impairment.
More specifically, what are some characteri
stics of speech sound errors? Well, some thi
ngs might be very difficult for-- some distin
ctions might be very difficult for someone
with a sensorineural hearing loss to perceiv
e. So voicing distinctions, for instance. Or e
ven nasalization versus non nasalization.
And some of these errors can relate to the fr
Week 1 Page 10
ctions might be very difficult for someone
with a sensorineural hearing loss to perceiv
e. So voicing distinctions, for instance. Or e
ven nasalization versus non nasalization.
And some of these errors can relate to the fr
equency of the sounds being produced. So s
omeone with a high frequency hearing loss
might have difficulty producing sounds that
are of higher frequencies, such a certain fri
catives.
We also do see distortions related to resona
nce, or maybe vowel precision. Problems w
ith vowel duration. As well as addition of c
ertain sounds, such as vowels between cons
onants.
When we move into structural impairment,
this is also an area where what we see can v
ary widely. Children can have minor issues,
perhaps a malocclusion, which refers to ho
w the upper and lower dentition come toget
her. They could have missing teeth. Of cour
se, it's very common for children to lose the
ir deciduous teeth until their permanent teet
h come in.
But there are children where those teeth ma
y be missing much earlier. And that will rai
se a concern for speech production. There al
so can be issues-- minor issues-- related to t
ongue, tongue size, the size of
the lingua frenulum, which is the tissue und
erneath the tongue.
Now that varies quite a bit from major issue
s, such as cleft lip and palate, or maybe anot
her craniofacial anomaly. Without going int
o an incredible amount of detail, let's go thr
ough what this might look like.
A cleft lip is when parts of
the lip do not come together during fetal de
velopment. And this occurs very early in fet
al development. Similarly, in a cleft palate,
there's a failure of parts of the palate. The p
alatal shelves don't fuse normally during fet
al development. And children can also have
something called a submucous cleft palate,
where, in looking in the mouth, the tissue's t
here. But the palatal shelves never fused ab
ove the tissue. And so that can be deceiving
. In the end, they'll be marked impact on res
onance for sure. And likely for articulation.
And just to show you what this looks like,
we see here a cleft of the
lip that's unrepaired. And here, if you look r
ight next to it, what you're actually seeing is
an unrepaired cleft palate. And this portion
right here is the top of the nasal cavity. And
so this is a child who did not have their clef
t palate repaired.
And if you want to look at this in a little mo
re detail, you can even see some abnormalit
y in the lip, right? And so it looks like that l
ip may have been repaired earlier. Just as an
aside, cleft lip in the United States is comm
only repaired around three months of age, t
he
palate around 12 months of age. And those
ages do vary depending on the site.
And a submucous cleft palate, as I mentione
d before, it can be difficult to see. But there
are some telltale signs, or signs that we nee
d to look into this further. One is a bifid uvu
la. And if you look at the uvula in the pictur
e, you'll see how it's split in two. That's a bi
fid uvula. This is pretty marked. But this ca
n also be a small indentation.
We could also see a notch in the hard palate
, or zona pellucida, which is an abnormal or
ientation of the soft palate musculature. An
d it causes the middle of the velum, as you s
ee here, to be thin and kind of bluish in colo
r. Specifically right there.
Now how does this all impact speech produ
Week 1 Page 11
ientation of the soft palate musculature. An
d it causes the middle of the velum, as you s
ee here, to be thin and kind of bluish in colo
r. Specifically right there.
Now how does this all impact speech produ
ction? It can, in a mild way all the way to se
vere way in terms of arctic and resonance.
What are some things we do see? We can se
e our obligatory errors. Meaning these are e
rrors that are related to the impairment such
as nasal emission, which is sort of sound co
ming, or the sound wave coming out of the
nasal cavity, reduced intraoral air pressure.
And it could also involve phoneme distortio
ns, visual distortions like facial grimacing
while producing speech.
These errors are often difficult to change wi
th therapy. We do, though, see compensator
y errors. Now when I use the term compens
atory, I mean it in sort of, not compensatory
in a positive way. These are learned devian
t patterns that persist after surgery, but can
be improved with treatment.
And of course, we don't want to forget that
children with submucous cleft palate, can al
so have developmental speech errors, just li
ke any other child. They might have a latera
l lisp or a phonological issue.
Now there are a few other types of motor i
mpairment. One is dysarthria, and that relat
es from neuromuscular impairment. And so
we most commonly link dysarthria, or see d
ysarthria in children with cerebral palsy.
So recall how I brought up the speech subsy
stems. And this is so important to think abo
ut with children with motor impairment, be
cause it's likely that there'll be a breakdown
across several subsystems. And so, what we
do see are that there can be difficulties in c
hildren with dysarthria, in respiration, in ph
onation, articulation, resonance, as well as i
n prosody.
But the characteristics are going to vary dep
ending on the type of dysarthria, and of cou
rse, depending on the severity of impairmen
t. A child could have mild dysarthria rangin
g all the way to severe dysarthria and compl
ete unintelligibility.
Briefly though, there are several types of dy
sarthria. I'll just outline them here for you a
nd point out the main characteristics. Flacci
d dysarthria, which is tied to a lower motor
neurolesion, commonly associated with a la
ck of muscle tone and some weakness. And
you can see how there's a breakdown in ma
ny areas. Hyper nasality, so that relates to re
sonance. Imprecise consonants. That relates
to articulation. Monotone, which is prosod
y. Nasal emission, which is resonance. It
can also be articulation. And then breathine
ss, which is phonation. So I think that's a re
ally clear example of how we could have a
breakdown at different levels.
Spastic dysarthria, though, is more tied to a
n upper motor neuron lesion further up in th
e production mechanism, further in the brai
n. And resulting in spasticity, weakness, a li
mited range of movement, and
an array of speech production difficulties fr
om imprecise articulation to harsh voice str
ained phonation, and so on.
And then lastly ataxic dysarthria is linked to
cerebellar-- damage to the cerebellar area.
We often see articulation or prosodic errors.
We can also see increased speech rate and
problems with loudness and pitch variabilit
y.
And so, this is really just a very brief overvi
ew as we do cover this content in different c
ourses.
And the last piece here is Childhood Apraxi
Week 1 Page 12
y.
And so, this is really just a very brief overvi
ew as we do cover this content in different c
ourses.
And the last piece here is Childhood Apraxi
a Speech. So, children who demonstrate mo
tor deficits, children with CAS, have motor
deficits. But there is often the absence of a c
lear neuro motor sign.
And so we describe how there's a deficit in
praxis, which is the ability to select, plan, or
ganize, and initiate movement. It's an aware
ness of where structures are during a move
ment. And so, there's consensus now, throu
gh ASHA and in the literature, that CAS is
a real disorder. It's a separate disorder from
an articulation impairment. It isn't simply a
severe articulation impairment. It's a motor
speech impairment.
And according to the ASHA
position statement from 2007, there are thre
e characteristics commonly associated with
CAS. They are inconsistent errors on conso
nants and vowels, lengthened and disrupted
coarticulatory transitions-- and I'll explain
what that means in a moment-- and inappro
priate prosody.
Now children's CAS can have other issues a
s well. And I'll explain that soon as well. Bu
t but these are three things that we first look
for. Inconsistent errors. I highlight this bec
ause inconsistent errors can take on several
different meanings. In relation to CAS, we t
hink of inconsistent errors on the same wor
d produced several different times. And so,
the word cat could be produced as tat, gat, o
r at. Three errors, but three different errors.
And that's atypical.
Disrupted coarticulatory transition is simply
difficulty moving from one phoneme to an
other. And so, the child might be able to pro
duce a kuh sound, but can't nicely sequence
that kuh with the next vowel, and or that vo
wel with the next consonant. So that breakd
own and sequencing can mean that the vow
el
is distorted, that the vowel's prolonged, may
be there's a voicing error in the consonant, a
nd so on.
And then inappropriate prosody. And this o
ften presents as equal stress. Children sound
ing very robotic. Like, we do, though, can s
ee-- we may also see inaccurate lexical or in
accurate phrasal stress. Lexical stress, whic
h is at the word level. Phrasal stress which i
s at the phrase level.
And then, lastly, there are additional charact
eristics of CAS. I mentioned how that ASH
A position statement highlights those three
components. But to me, criteria for CAS, w
e also look for, perhaps at least four of these
other characteristics. And that could be arti
culate groping, which is a struggle to produ
cing articulatory sounds. Problems ordering
sounds, syllables, and morphemes and wor
ds. Vowel errors, commonly seen as vowel
distortions. Errors in timing. That can relate
to voicing. That might relate to nasalization
. Omissions, which is leaving sounds out. D
istortions is distorting consonants, or perhap
s distorting vowels. And so on.
But ultimately, what we do see are that chil
dren with CAS tend to make very slow prog
ress in treatment. And that have difficulty w
ith sounds that increase as length and compl
exity increases. And we'll learn more about
this moving forward.
While an organic impairment has a cl
ear ideological component, a function
al impairment does not. So we'll use t
Week 1 Page 13
Up to this point, we've discussed primarily
disorders of speech sound production or er
rors in speech production. And those areas
can take different forms. When we think of
those errors as motor, we refer to them as
phonetic errors. In contrast, children can al
so have phonological errors. And so when
we're thinking about the actual diagnosis,
we can consider the difference between a p
honetic versus a phonological disorder. Re
call that these can both be contained under
the umbrella term "speech sound disorder.
"
So phonetics is, as a review, the physiologi
cal, physical characteristics of speech prod
uction. And when we talk about phonetic e
rrors, we primarily relate to placement or v
oicing issues. In contrast, phonology is lin
guistic. And so a phonological error refers
to a change in a sound class or the use of p
erhaps-- or alteration in the use of a produc
tion rule or a phonological rule.
Week 1 Page 14
While an organic impairment has a cl
ear ideological component, a function
al impairment does not. So we'll use t
he term functional impairment when
we've ruled out other issues in a trial.
So when structure and hearing acuity
and their physical systems appear to b
e normal, and so the cause of the imp
airment really can't be determined.
Most phonological impairments fall i
nto this category. And so, what's reall
y key with these children is that we as
sess clearly what we can assess, mean
ing we're sure that structure is intact b
y performing a comprehensive oral pe
ripheral exam. And children with spe
ech difficulties have had a comprehen
sive complete audiological evaluation
to rule out those elements. So once w
e've done that, we may determine that
the etiology is functional.
And so, broadly, when we think about
phonological delay or phonological d
isorder, we're trying to understand the
speech production difficulties in relat
ion to typical speech development. A
nd so we commonly use the term dela
y to refer to a situation where children
are using phonological patterns that
we see in typical speech development
. So for instance, a child who's four m
ay be producing speech patterns or ph
onological patterns that we might see
in a two-year-old, such
as dropping the ends of words, droppi
ng the final consonant of a word, or d
ropping the unstressed syllable in a w
ord.
In contrast, we use the term phonolog
ical disorder to describe processes or
patterns that aren't typically seen in sp
eech development. So these are nonde
velopmental patterns. For instance, a
child who overuses glottalization, that
's not something we typically expect t
o see in young children. So if we do s
ee a child overusing glottalization, tha
t might be a child who perhaps may b
e displaying a phonological disorder a
s opposed to a phonological delay.
Along those lines of thinking, we also
think about children falling into more
of a phonological disorder where the
y're using patterns perhaps that are m
ore complex, later developing sounds
or phonemes and not using earlier sou
nds. So children who have affricates i
n their phonetic inventory but are still
not producing bilabial phonemes acc
urately, that's the type of pattern that
might align with a phonological disor
der.
oicing issues. In contrast, phonology is lin
guistic. And so a phonological error refers
to a change in a sound class or the use of p
erhaps-- or alteration in the use of a produc
tion rule or a phonological rule.
And in many cases, or in some cases, whe
n children display phonological or otherwi
se called phonemic errors, they may also n
ot distinguish between phonemes or produ
ce different forms of phonemes. For exam
ple, a child might overuse a phoneme like
D to represent a variety of other phonemes
, so D would be used to also represent T, S
, and Z. In such cases, we would say that t
he child may not have a phonological or p
honemic contrast between those sounds.
Along those lines of thinking, in a phoneti
c problem, the phonemic contrast is preser
ved, but we believe this to be more motorbased. And so when a phonemic contrast is
preserved, the child is producing two disti
nct forms for two different phonemes. Wit
h a phonemic or phonological error, there
can be difficulty using phonemes to differe
ntiate meaning, which is that loss of phone
mic contrast similar to the example I gave
you of a child over using D. Now, these iss
ues are rulebased, and so the child might actually have
difficulty with the linguistic rule that unde
rlies the production.
So how can we tell if a phonemic contrast
exists between phonemes, because there ar
e times where you're really not sure. Well,
we can do some minimal pair work. And
minimal pairs are when we have two word
s that-- or problems with phonemes where
those phonemes differ with respect to one
distinctive feature.
For instance, in "pie" and "bye," P and B a
re distinguished only with respect to the vo
icing feature. P is voiceless. B is voiced. S
o if I were questioning whether the child c
an perceive and produce the difference bet
ween P and B, I would use minimal pairs t
o explore that further. And through this co
urse, I will help you understand how to ex
plore that using minimal pair contrast.
Similarly, "mess"
and "met." S and T are distinguished with r
espect to the continuant feature. S is contin
uant, T is not. But they're both made in the
same place of articulation and with the sa
me voicing, meaning they're both unvoiced
. And so it's possible that rather than havin
g an S and a T in their phonological repres
entation, the child may only have T and m
ay use T to represent both S and T.
So if we look at some specific examples, w
e try to figure out whether a problem may
be more or phonological. In the example o
f a lateralized S, in lateralized S, the child i
s likely to have this lateralization problem
where air is escaping out of the sides of the
tongue, and that a variety of phonemes are
produced with this lateralized articulation
pattern. Such cases are likely to be phoneti
c, or more motor-based.
But in contrast, if a child is stopping or fro
nting-- so if S becomes T, that's a stopping
error. If K becomes T, that's a
fronting error. If we are going to see that t
hese errors happen with some regularity, w
e begin to believe that perhaps there might
be a phonological reason, that there might
be a problem with
a linguistic rule that might underlie that pat
tern.
The bottom line is, children can have phon
etic and phonological errors. We do try to i
dentify the type of error pattern. But quite
Week 1 Page 15
lateralized S, in lateralized S, the child is likely to have this late
ralization problem where air is escaping out of the sides of the t
ongue, and that a variety of phonemes are produced with this lat
eralized articulation pattern. Such cases are likely to be phoneti
c, or more motor-based
a linguistic rule that might underlie that pat
tern.
The bottom line is, children can have phon
etic and phonological errors. We do try to i
dentify the type of error pattern. But quite
often in treatment we do need to deal with
remediating both types of errors.
So if we think back to the case study, that i
s similar to what we've seen before, similar
in age, once we understand and we're eval
uating a child, we want to really explore th
eir history a little bit more and then think a
bout how that relates to the way they're pre
senting currently. So in this little boy who'
s four, he is aware of
his speech difficulties, which is quite inter
esting. The teacher reports that he's teased
in school, so regardless of-- before we eve
n see him, we know that communication is
a problem here, that it's going to need to b
e addressed.
We know there's a significant family histor
y, because there are older siblings and both
have had speech and language issues. And
we also know that this child has not been
seen by a speech language pathologist, so t
here's no prior diagnosis at this point.
But when we look further into speech patte
rns based on the single word testing, we fi
nd that the child is deleting phonemes at th
e ends of words and fronting velars. And w
hat we want to do in a speech sample is to
analyze that further. So deleting phonemes
in the final word position could be a phon
ological process or a phonological pattern.
But we wouldn't know that unless we dove
deeper. Same with fronting of velars.
And so in the speech sample, I'm really goi
ng to look more deeply at this. And we not
ice that the child is consistent in the way th
at final consonants are deleted. Also has a
problem with consonant clusters being red
uced to one consonant, and continues to ha
ve problems with velars where they're bein
g fronted and voiced and a preference for
D.
So this profile seems to align with the desc
ription of a phonological impairment. Why
? Because there may be issues that are ling
uistically based that occur with some regul
arity that underlie the way the child is sim
plifying or reducing phoneme production.
And so we would through our relational an
alysis explore this further. And moving for
ward, I'll actually explain to you how to id
entify these phonological processes with gr
eater clarity.
Week 1 Page 16
c, or more motor-based
As clinicians, your perceptual jud
gments are going to play an impor
tant role in how you think about i
mpaired speech. And so judgment
s of speech intelligibility are impo
rtant to consider.
So first, we rely on qualitative jud
gments. There are many ways in
which we can quantify speech. Bu
t it all comes back to how speech
sounds to the listener. So the clini
cian's perception of how understa
ndable a child's speech is-- perhap
s parent's perspective, teacher's pe
rspective, the way in which a chil
d is perceived, and how understan
dable they are is really critical. An
d so, at the level of the clinician,
we will make these judgments in s
everal different ways.
We will judge the intelligibility of
words, phrases, sentences, or con
nected speech. Recall that we thin
k about coarticulation, the longer t
he utterance, the more there is a se
We will judge the intelligibility of
words, phrases, sentences, or con
nected speech. Recall that we thin
k about coarticulation, the longer t
he utterance, the more there is a se
quence amongst the articulators a
nd the speech subsystems. So we
might expect to see intelligibility
drop as children move from words
to connected speech. And so it's c
ritical to always include a judgme
nt of connected speech.
And we'll come to this point over
and over again. We would never
want to rely on basing our judgme
nt of intelligibility only on single
words alone. And then, so those ra
tings can take different forms. The
y can be in the form of excellent,
good, fair, poor. We also use ratin
gs in between that like good to fai
r, or fair to poor. But it's based on
our perceptions.
Now, we compare that with a qua
ntitative judgment. And this mean
s that we'd be measuring some asp
ect of speech production and com
paring it to a rating scale. This is c
ommonly done, probably most co
mmonly done, in terms of content
accuracy, but it also can be looked
at with wholeword accuracy. And so the most c
ommon way to do this is through
an index called the percent conson
ant correct. And so this was a mea
sure that was first described by Sh
riberg and Kwiatkowski in the '80
s.
Shriberg has since revised this me
tric in several different ways. But
we're really going to use the most
basic form. And that involves dete
rmining the number of consonants
that are produced correctly, comp
aring it to the total number of con
sonants, and multiplying by 100.
For example, if we had a speech s
ample that involved 100 consonan
ts and 75 were produced correctly,
then the Percent Consonant corre
ct would be 75%. But that's just a
number.
And in a few moments, I'll explai
n how to interpret that number. W
hat's important, though, is to think
about, following some guidelines,
what to score, what not to score.
And we will basically score every
sound the child is producing exce
pt for syllable and word repetition
s.
Meaning that, if you're determinin
g the PCC from a speech sample i
n which the child's playing with th
e car, and they've repeated the wo
rd car throughout that play scenari
o 10 times, you would only count
it once unless the child
has changed production of that wo
rd and has had several renditions
of that word.
Back to the score, what do we do
with that score. So you recall that
the example I gave you resulted in
a rating of 75%. This simply mea
ns that the child would fall within
the mild to moderate rating of spe
ech intelligibility, so the 65% to 8
5% range that's shown here. So thi
s is really important that when we
Week 1 Page 17
ns that the child would fall within
the mild to moderate rating of spe
ech intelligibility, so the 65% to 8
5% range that's shown here. So thi
s is really important that when we
come up with this percentage of p
ercent continent correct, that we r
elate it
to the severity rating scale, and th
at, this scale is an index of how in
telligible or unintelligible the chil
d may be.
The listening labs are a very fun and inter
esting component of this course. This is a
n opportunity for you to put your transcrip
tion skills to work and to learn how to des
cribe disordered speech. And so there'll be
components of these labs weaved into the
course, and I want to walk you through w
hat that's going to look like.
So first, the rationale is to give you the ch
ance to describe disordered speech. Most s
tudents don't have the chance to do this un
til they're sitting in front of a client, and it
does take skill and practice to get used to.
And so the labs will progress so that the tr
anscriptions will get a little more complic
ated over time.
So these weekly labs will be assigned. Yo
u're going to listen to a set of files and tran
scribe the productions using broad transcri
ption. So when we use broad transcription
, we're not using diacritics. I think it's best
to first really refine your skills using broa
d transcription first.
And so this is how it will happen. You're
going to assess a series of sound files and
a corresponding record sheet. You're then
going to transcribe productions using the I
PA-- the International Phonetic Alphabet- and transcribe them onto an Excel sheet t
hat you'll see here in a minute. And then y
ou're going to submit it. And so you'll the
n be able to access the answer key and the
score productions.
So just to orient you-- you're seeing here t
he English form of the word, the intended
form in IPA, the spoken form, and you're
going to put your transcription into that ca
tegory. But we're also going to look at a fe
w other things. So the intended word struc
ture is the consonant and vowel structure
of the intended form of the accurate produ
ction.
The spoken word structure is the structure
of what the child actually said. The numbe
r of consonants refers to the number of co
nsonants in the accurate form-- so how ma
ny consonants should have been produced
. And the column next to it that says numb
er of consonants correct is how many of th
Week 1 Page 18
er of consonants correct is how many of th
ose consonants were actually produced co
rrectly.
And then, lastly, the number of vowels col
umn refers to the number of vowels that w
ere in the target word that should have bee
n produced. The number vowels correct ar
e the vowels that were actually produced c
orrectly. So to just take a look at some of t
he-- listen and look at the transcription. Le
t's listen to the first word.
Housh.
So this word was produced incorrectly, an
d I would transcribe it like this. I'm using
brackets to illustrate that it's the productio
n form-- the producted form and "housh" t
o capture what the child actually produced
, and so you would fill this in the spoken
word column.
Next word-Widou.
Let's play that one more time.
Widou.
And so you would transcribe this as "wido
u." And you'll notice that there are some c
onsonants that are produced accurately but
other consonants that are missing. So if w
e move to the next slide, you'll see that I'v
e completed the form for you. And if we j
ust look at the word "house," how it was p
roduced is "housh".
The intended form was a CVC form, but t
he spoken word structure is the same. Eve
n though there was an error, it's still a con
sonant, vowel, consonant sequence. There
were two consonants in the intended prod
uction, but only one was produced correctl
y. And then there was only one vowel in t
he intended production, and that vowel wa
s produced correctly. And so you can go t
hrough and listen to each file, complete th
is chart, and you do have it as a reference j
ust to get you started.
But moving forward, you will not have th
e answer keys-- the answer key ahead of ti
me. So to sum this up, you'll open the for
m in Excel, you'll listen to the sound file, t
ranscribe an IPA on the Excel sheet, and I'
ll have some fonts shown in there to make
that a little bit easier for you to bring in.
You'll submit the transcriptions and then a
ccess the score sheet. And
I think you're going to find this is a great
way to get you started in listening to disor
dered speech.
Transcription Reminders for Listening Labs
There are different conventions for transcription of [r] in the final position
of a syllable.
In convention 1, rhotic vowels are transcribed as follows. Only the
centralized vowel is given r-coloring. When another vowel precedes /r/, a
final /r/ can be produced e.g., /ar/ in /kar/. CVC
Only the following rhotic vowels are used.
Rhotic vowels
• unstressed = /ɚ/ “paper”: /pɛɪpɚ/ CVCV
• stressed = /ɝ/ “bird”: /bɝd/ CVC
•
•
•
•
•
In convention 2, in addition to the rhotic vowels, we have rhotic dipthongs
at the end of a syllable. These rhotic diphthongs replace the vowel+final r.
Rhotic diphthongs
/ɪɚ/
“deer” : /dɪɚ/ CV
/ɔɚ/
“door”: /dɔɚ/ CV
/ɑɚ/
“dark” : /dɑɚk/
CVC
/ɛɚ/
“dare” : /dɛɚ/
CV
/uɚ/
“poor” : /puɚ/
CV
Also Recall:
Week 1 Page 19
- ɚ vs. ɝ
tiʧɚ (teacher) vs. pɝpl (purple)
Unstressed rhotic
Stressed rhotic
- ʌ vs. ə
ɛləfɪnt
vs.
kʌp
- ɚ vs. ɝ
tiʧɚ (teacher) vs. pɝpl (purple)
Unstressed rhotic
Stressed rhotic
- ʌ vs. ə
ɛləfɪnt
vs.
kʌp
Unstressed mid vowel Stressed mid vowel
PRACTICE: Identify the consonant positions in the following words:
Live Session 1
BOR Questions
1. What is a consonant cognate? Give an example?
2. When considering consonant position within a syllable—the
following acronyms are used: SIWI, SIWW, SFWF, SFWW—what do
these stand for?
3. When discussing Etiological Factors related to SSDs, we break them
up into Organic and Functional--define the 2.
4. How is PCC (Shriberg & Kwiatkowski, 1982) determined?
For a client to be considered in the mid-moderate range of
severity—what must their percentage be?
5. When feature contrasts differentiate one word from another—we
are talking about minimal pairs. Minimal pairs and consonant
cognates are different. Consonant cognates only differ by VOICING.
Week 1 Page 20
1. Necklace
a. /n/ (SIWI)
b. /k/ (SFWW)
c. /l/ (SIWW)
d. /s/ (SFWF)
2. Batman
a. /b/ (SIWI)
b. /t/ (SFWW)
c. /m/ (SIWW)
d. /n/ (SFWF)
3. Handbag
a. /h/ (SIWI)
b. /nd/ (SFWW)
c. /b/ (SIWW)
d. /g/ (SFWF)
4. Computer
a. /k/ (SIWI)
b. /m/ (SFWW)
c. /p/ (SIWW)
d. /t/ (SIWW)
5. Watches
a. /w/ (SIWI)
b. /ch/ SIWW)
c. /z/ (SFWF)
Thursday, January 21, 2021
7:17 PM
Speech Dev Week 1 Cheat Sheet:
Place/Manner/Voicing:
Place: The location of constriction
1. Bilabial: lips
2. Labio-dental: lips and teeth
3. Lingua-dental: tongue and teeth
4. Lingu-alveolar: tongue-alveolar ridge
5. Lingua-palatal: teeth and hard palate
6. Lingua-velar: tongue and soft palate
7. Glottal: glottis
Manner: Ways speakers block airflow through oral cavity using different types of constrictions
1. Stops: complete stoppage of air in vocal tract
2. Fricatives: narrow constriction that air passes through
3. Affricates: stoppage of airflow followed by a constriction
4. Nasals: coupling between oral and nasal cavities
5. Glide: gradually changing articulatory shape EX. WAH
6. Lateral: lingua-alveolar closure at midline but not at the sides of the tongue EX. UL
7. Rhotic: tongue bunched in the center of the oral cavity EX. ER
Voicing:
1. Voiceless: Produced with the vocal folds open so they do not vibrate during production of a sound.
2. Voiced: produced with the vocal folds approximated so they vibrate and produce noise or voicing.
ALL VOWELS ARE VOICED
CONSONANTS ARE VOICELESS OR VOICED
➢ The syllable is a small unit of speech with three components
1. Onset: consonant or cluster that initiates syllable
2. Nucleus/Peak: vowel or diphthong
3. Coda: consonant or cluster that follows nucleus
**Rime: nucleus + coda
within each box are cognate pairs. Cognates are sounds that are made in very much the same way but differ only with respect to voic
ing.
So let's look at p an b, for example. P and b are both bilabial stops. P is the voiceless of the pair. B is the voiced of the pair.
What's important to think about, though, is that how these sounds are made in almost exactly the same way. They are made in the sa
me way with the exception of the voicing being added or not. And so as your learning place manner of voicing, make use of this notio
n of cognate pairs, because it will help you group sounds together and make it easier to learn where they are.
Consonant Position:
 Within a word
◦ Initial position
◦ Medial position
◦ Final position
 Within a syllable
◦ SIWI: syllable initial word initial
◦ SIWW: syllable initial word within
◦ SFWF: syllable final word final
◦ SFWW: syllable final word within
 In relation to the vowel
◦ Prevocalic (before a vowel)
◦ Postvocalic (after a vowel)
◦ Intervocalic (between vowels)
Week 1 Page 21
Week 1 Page 22
Phonological Processes Cheat Sheet:
Types of Processes:
1. Syllable structure processes
• Simplify the word or syllable structure
– Example: “banana” ➔ [nanə]
2. Substitution processes
• Changes affecting specific segments or segment types
– Example: “fin” ➔ [tɪn]
3. Assimilation processes
• Change a segment to becomes more similar to a surrounding segment
– Example: “kite” ➔ [kik]
Syllable Structure Processes:
1. Syllable deletion:
**Typically unstressed syllable deletion:
• Deletion of an unstressed syllable
• Examples: (hint: transcribe the adult form)
– “spaghetti” ➔ [gԑdi]
– “banana” ➔ [nænə]
– “microwave” ➔ [maɪkweɪv]
2. Consonant deletion
Typically affects initial or final consonant
Final consonant deletion: Deletion of the final consonant
Usually eliminated by 3 years
Examples:
– “cup” ➔ [kʌ]
– “dot” ➔ [da]
• Initial consonant deletion: Deletion of initial consonant Examples
– “cup” ➔
[ʌp]
– “mat” ➔
[æt]
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. Reduplication:
Partial or total repetition of a syllable or word
Most common in the phonology of the first 50 words
Usually eliminated by 3 years
Is it a strategy for producing multisyllabic words?
Examples:
– “water” ➔
[wawa]
– “dog”
➔
[dada]
– “wagon” ➔
[wawa]
4. Consonant cluster reduction/simplification
Total cluster reduction (TCR) vs. Partial cluster reduction (PCR)
• Total (TCR): involves deletion of all members of the cluster
• Partial (PCR): occurs when some of the cluster members are deleted but
others remain
– “snake” ➔ [neɪkeɪ] (PCR)
– “snake” ➔ [eɪk] (TCR)
– “plane” ➔ [peɪn] (PCR)
5. Cluster reduction and substitution
• Substitution for one member of a cluster and reduction.
– “scream” ➔ [stim]
– “street” ➔ [dim]
6. Epenthesis
• A process that results in the insertion of a vowel between two consonants
(usually schwa).
– Insertion of a vowel between two consonants functions to simplify
the cluster
• Example: “spoon” ➔ [səpun]
Week 1 Page 23
Buttercup= CV.CV.CVC
Comfortable= CVCC.CV.CVC
Palatal= CV.CV.CVC
• Example: “spoon” ➔ [səpun]
– Vowels may be added in word-final position
• Example: “color” ➔ [kʌlərə]
– Insertion of a consonant
• Example: “soap” ➔ [sΘop]
Substitution Processes: Involve sound changes where one sound class
replaces another class of sounds.
1. Stopping
• Replacing fricatives or affricates with stop consonants (Ingram, 1989)
• Example:
– Soap ➔ /toup/
– Mate ➔ /beɪt/
2. Fronting:
• Velar fronting: Replacing a velar consonant /k,g,ng/ by a more anterior
consonant (typically alveolar)
– Example: cake ➔ /teɪk/
• Palatal fronting (depalatalization): Substituting an alveolar fricative for a
palatal fricative OR an alveolar affricate for a palatal affricate
– Example: shoe ➔ /su/
3. Backing
• Replacing an anterior consonant with a posterior consonant
– Example: two ➔ /ku/
do ➔
/gu/
4. Stridency Deletion
• Deleting or replacing a strident sound [f,v,s,z,sh,ch] with a nonstrident
sound.
• Strident sounds are all affricates and fricatives, except “th” (includes
voiced/voiceless “th” and “h”)
• It is a process that is closely associated with stopping
– Example: soap ➔ /toup/
5. Deaffrication
• Substituting a fricative or stop for an affricate
• The fricative or stop may or may not be produced in the same place as the
affricate
• Usually suppressed by 4 years of age
– Example: jeep ➔ /zip/
cheese ➔
/diz/
6. Depalatalization
• Substituting an alveolar fricative for a palatal fricative
• Usually suppressed by 4 years of age
– Example: shed ➔ /sεd/
mash ➔ /mæd/
shave ➔ /zeɪd/
chew ➔ /tsu/
7. Gliding
• Replacing liquids with glides
• Very common in 3 and 3 ½ year old children
• Greater incidence of gliding for prevocalic /r/ than for /l/
– Example: red ➔ /wԑd/
leaf ➔
/jif/ OR /wif/
8. Vowelization/Vocalization
• Syllabic liquids or nasals are replaced with vowels
• The typical vowels are /o/ and /ʊ/.
– Example: bottle ➔ /baɾo:/
Paper ➔ /peɪpo/ - (also derhoticization)**
• When child does not delete other final consonants, vowelization is not
considered FCD.
Assimilation Processes: Altering a consonant phoneme to become more
similar to a surrounding phoneme
1. Velar assimilation:
• Alveolar consonant changes to become more like a velar consonant.
– Example: take ➔ /keɪk/
dog ➔ /gag/
2. Labial Assimilation
• A non-labial consonant is replaced with a labial consonant in a context
containing a labial consonant.
• Commonly see alveolars change to labials
– Example: knife ➔ /maif/
bone ➔
/bom/
3. Alveolar Assimilation
• Assimilation of a non-alveolar sound to an alveolar sound.
• The non-alveolar is influenced by another alveolar in the word.
– Examples: top ➔/tat/
Soup ➔
/sut/
Week 1 Page 24
4. Nasal Assimilation (manner change)
• Assimilation of a non-nasal to a nasal consonant
• Place of articulation may also be assimilated
– Example: gun ➔ /nʌn/
candy ➔
/næni/
5. Prevocalic voicing
• The change of a voiceless obstruent (fricative, affricate or stop) into a
voiced one when preceding a vowel within the same syllable
– Example: take ➔ /dek/
pen ➔ /bεn/
6. Final Consonant Devoicing (Post Vocalic Devoicing)
• Involves the devoicing of a voiced obstruent when it occurs at the end of a
syllable
• Example: made➔ /met/
dad ➔
/dæt/
7. Coalescence
• Features from 2 adjacent sounds combine to form one sound (total
assimilation)
– Example: Sweater ➔ /feɾɚ/
When do typically developing children stop producing phonological
processes??
{Smit & Hand (1997)}
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Assimilation
<3 yrs
FCD
<3 yrs
Stopping (initial fricatives & affricates) ~3½ yrs
Fronting of initial velars
4yrs
Cluster reduction (without s)
4yrs
Cluster reduction (with s)
5 yrs
Weak syllable deletion
5yrs
Gliding of initial liquids
7 yrs
Criteria for identifying the presence of a phonological process (McReynolds
& Elbert, 1981):
• One occurrence of a sound change does not signify the presence of a
process.
• Specific errors must have an opportunity to occur in at least four instances
• The error has to occur in at least 20% of the items that could be affected
by the process
• Example: If a child’s sample contained 20 words with final consonants, at
least four of the 20 words (20%) had to be produced without a final
consonant to list FCD as a process present in the child’s system.
Week 1 Page 25
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Transcription Reminders for Listening Labs
There are different conventions for transcription of [r] in the final
position of a syllable.
In convention 1, rhotic vowels are transcribed as follows. Only the
centralized vowel is given r-coloring. When another vowel precedes /r/,
a final /r/ can be produced e.g., /ar/ in /kar/. CVC
Only the following rhotic vowels are used.
Rhotic vowels
• unstressed = /ɚ/ “paper”: /pɛɪpɚ/ CVCV
• stressed = /ɝ/ “bird”: /bɝd/ CVC
•
•
•
•
•
In convention 2, in addition to the rhotic vowels, we have rhotic
dipthongs at the end of a syllable. These rhotic diphthongs replace the
vowel+final r.
Rhotic diphthongs
/ɪɚ/
“deer” : /dɪɚ/ CV
/ɔɚ/
“door”: /dɔɚ/ CV
/ɑɚ/
“dark” : /dɑɚk/
CVC
/ɛɚ/
“dare” : /dɛɚ/
CV
/uɚ/
“poor” : /puɚ/
CV
Also Recall:
- ɚ vs. ɝ tiʧɚ (teacher) vs. pɝpl (purple)
Unstressed rhotic
Stressed rhotic
- ʌ vs. ə
ɛləfɪnt
vs.
kʌp
Unstressed mid vowel Stressed mid vowel
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Tuesday, January 26, 2021
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Sunday, January 10, 2021
6:01 PM
Before we can begin to dive into how to ana
lyze speech sound errors, we're going to tak
e a look at the overview of an assessment so
that you can understand the components tha
t go into planning and conducting an assess
ment.
First, let's begin with
a screening. A speech screening or language
screening can be very powerful because it c
an be completed to determine if a problem e
xists. And this can be done for several reaso
ns. Perhaps a school has set up a framework
where a few clinicians can go in and screen
a class of preschoolers or kindergarteners fo
r speech and language impairment.
And that would help identify any child who
might be at risk for an impairment or who m
ight have reduced speech intelligibility who
needs to be looked at further. So a screening
is intended, typically, to be able to informal
ly assess, on a very basic level, a group of c
hildren, and then to recommend them if nee
ded for a comprehensive assessment.
And this can be done in a few different ways
. It can be simple, such as collecting a conne
cted speech sample and engaging with the c
hild, and maybe having them tell a quick sto
ry, or maybe even something more structure
d, like counting or naming the days of the w
eek.
We could have children produce phrases or
sentences to examine specific sounds if we h
ave a certain concern, or even administer co
mponents of the standardized tests. Both the
Templin Darley and the Fisher Logemann h
ave very small sections designed specificall
y for a screening to identify someone who m
ight need a comprehensive assessment. A sc
reening is never used to form a diagnosis.
So for a comprehensive assessment, this is s
omething we would do when either a child f
ails a screening or where there's concern abo
ut speech and language development from ei
ther the parent or a physician, teacher, anyo
ne in the child's environment. And this must
involve a combination of formal and inform
al testing.
Assessment can be a oneshot deal. It can be done at one time period
or across several sessions. Of course, for yo
unger, more complex, or more involved chil
dren, evaluating children across several sess
ions can be really informative and powerful.
Unfortunately, given the setting that you mi
ght be working within, that simply might no
t be possible.
What's key to remember, though, is that this
is a clinical problemsolving process. And one of the parts I love- one thing I love about diagnostics in our fi
eld is that it's a chance to solve a broad puzz
le and find out, from that broad puzzle, what
the specific components of the impairment
might be. And so your goal is to figure out t
Week 2 Page 1
eld is that it's a chance to solve a broad puzz
le and find out, from that broad puzzle, what
the specific components of the impairment
might be. And so your goal is to figure out t
he problem to be solved, what you might ne
ed to do to get at that, what information you
need in order to uncover the problem.
You might have to think about, well, what's
commonly done in our field to assess speech
sound production and which might be appro
priate for a given child. And then you have t
o plan. Children differ greatly from one anot
her. And so planning for one assessment for
a child might be very different from the next
assessment that you're going to plan. So our
goal, though, is to use some initial informat
ion we obtain about their background, first c
lient contact, maybe some early contact with
a parent to help plan some of that assessme
nt.
What are some important things to think abo
ut? Well, as I mentioned, children vary. But
some particular challenges are kids who are
very young. And perhaps this is a child whe
n there is limited or no babbling, so very, ve
ry little use of verbal output to communicate
. There are also children who might begin us
ing unusual sound productions.
If you recall earlier, we talked about differe
nce versus delay and disorder. Well, there ar
e certain patterns that we expect early in dev
elopment. And having children perhaps may
be have very little output but be producing l
ater developing sounds only is atypical.
Now, then tying that to a behavior-- children
who are frustrated, who might be acting out
because they can't verbally communicate-- t
hat raises a red flag that something needs to
be looked at. And then, of course, somethin
g a little bit different is children who are alre
ady in treatment but aren't making gains.
So that's one situation. Another is when you'
re evaluating a child who's already been dia
gnosed with a problem, and perhaps you're a
new clinician coming in. And we often see t
his in a university setting where we have a c
linic. And a clinician will work with a client
for
a semester or two, and then that client move
s to a new clinician. And so your objective i
s to determine if the diagnosis is appropriate
. What is the current state of the problem, ev
en though this child has been in treatment fo
r a while?
So components of pretty much every assess
ment should include a comprehensive case h
istory interview-- that could be an intake for
m combined with an inperson interview of the parent caregiver wit
h the child-- a hearing screening on the day
of the assessment, a comprehensive oral mot
or exam, some type of standardized testing
where we might tap into the single word lev
el. We may get into other word levels as wel
l.
But importantly, every assessment needs so
me index of connected speech from a child
who has verbal output. Dynamic assessment
Week 2 Page 2
el. We may get into other word levels as wel
l.
But importantly, every assessment needs so
me index of connected speech from a child
who has verbal output. Dynamic assessment
-- and I'll explain what that is shortly-- as we
ll as simulatbility testing. So we'll go throug
h these components. But this is really the ess
ence of every assessment of speechsound production.
What we're trying to do is figure out not onl
y if there is an issue, but perhaps the ideolog
y of the problem, what might be underlying
this problem, whether there are any other m
aintaining factors, factors that might be mai
ntaining the impairment. So a hearing loss is
a maintaining factor. A child with a forward
tongue physician who continues to suck the
ir thumb-- that thumb sucking is a maintaini
ng factor. It has the potential to maintain the
disorder.
But our objective also is to identify whether
treatment is needed, and importantly, goals f
or remediation. The detailed analysis that yo
u'll learn to do as you move through this cou
rse will put you in a position to identify appr
opriate goals for remediation, not only that a
problem exists.
So I mentioned an intake form. An intake fo
rm can be a background questionnaire sent t
o parents before they come to you. And we'r
e really trying to gauge the child's history-what might be the concern, any red flags in t
heir background. And so we want to know a
bout their developmental history, where the
y stand right now in terms of their communi
cative status, and other areas like where they
are in school, grade and performance, any p
articular concerns from those in the child's li
fe, parents, any concerns from the teacher.
And the parent can also report if there
are concerns that the child has.
Any preferences-- so weaved into this, I like
to get a sense of what the child's interests ar
e. It could be really powerful and helpful to
know what the child likes so that you can ha
ve some items at your assessment that the ch
ild might like. For instance, we recently saw
a child whose parent reported that they love
d cats. And some of the activities that we ha
d involved the theme of cats, and that seeme
d to be very reinforcing for that child and en
couraged her to perform.
And of course, and very importantly, second
language and cultural influences-- we must
understand if the child speaks another langu
age, is exposed to another language, or has t
he influence of varied cultural factors, becau
se that can have an impact on communicatio
n.
So at the time of the interview, we can struct
ure this in different ways. We're really tryin
g to get a sense of-- maybe to review some o
f the information that was in the intake form
and to look for consistency, to get a sense fr
om the parent of their true concerns. During
that interview, you also may have the child
with you to get a sense of whether the child
is concerned about their speech or language,
Week 2 Page 3
om the parent of their true concerns. During
that interview, you also may have the child
with you to get a sense of whether the child
is concerned about their speech or language,
or get a sense of how that child might be int
eracting with the parent during the interview
.
But thinking a little more broadly, you start t
o get a sense of the family attitude, family c
oncerns. Is the parent there simply because t
he pediatrician urged them to go, and the par
ent is not concerned? Or is the family drivin
g this?
I also like to try to see what the child's sense
might be like. Are they aware that there's an
issue? How willing are they to interact with
the interviewer? And so the best way to pre
pare for the interview is to look back at that
intake form and prepare your questions base
d on the information that was provided, beca
use there might be areas that you need to div
e into further during the interview. And the
other side to that is looking at how you migh
t be able to structure your assessment based
on some of this information. And weaving i
n the child's interests would be a help.
In terms of etiology, we really need to under
stand the child's history. There has to be so
me clear evidence that the child has had a he
aring, screening, or perhaps a complete etiol
ogical evaluation. Even if they have, you do
still want to perform the screening at the day
of the assessment to get a sense of what thei
r hearing is like on that day. And same for o
ral motor exam. Even if the child has had an
oral motor exam, we would still plan to do
another one. But we do want the history of
what might be underlying.
In terms of language, receptive and expressi
ve, we're going to administer a standardized
test. So the focus of this course is on speech
sound disorders, and we talk a lot about pro
duction. That doesn't mean that we're not eq
ually as concerned, more broadly, about all
aspects of language in addition to phonolog
y.
So comprehensive receptive and expressive
language testing-- this can be done by admin
istering a test. Same-- just like we talk about
getting an informal assessment of articulati
on, we need to do that with language, and th
at's taken from a language sample. We'll elic
it that language sample in a variety of differ
ent ways. It can be having a child tell you a
story to obtaining a sample through a play a
ctivity. And that will have to be carefully pl
anned out depending on the child's willingne
ss to participate, and whether they're verbal,
how verbal they are or not. In addition to rec
eptive and expressive language, we also loo
k carefully at pragmatic language and the so
cial aspects of communication.
In terms of articulation and phonology, we'r
e going to spend a lot of time dissecting thes
e two areas. One is how to administer standa
rdized tests, benefits and drawbacks. We ca
n get a lot of really nice information very qu
ickly, but that certainly doesn't give us-- that
Week 2 Page 4
e two areas. One is how to administer standa
rdized tests, benefits and drawbacks. We ca
n get a lot of really nice information very qu
ickly, but that certainly doesn't give us-- that
doesn't paint a picture of all the child can d
o or not do. So we need to obtain and analyz
e a connected speech sample.
We want to get a sense of how intelligible a
nd understandable the child is in their more
natural speech. Within that, we want to look
at dialectal differences and get a sense of th
e error patterns. Once we start getting to err
or pattern analysis, are the errors that we ide
ntified at a singleword level through a test similar to those tha
t we're seeing in a connected speech sample
?
But the umbrella piece here is that we're ass
essing the whole child. Even though we're f
ocusing heavily on speech production, we're
looking at all areas of communication. And
so that's going to force us to look at how pro
duction ties to language, how language is lin
ked to play, cognition, and literacy. These ar
eas are all linked together and may play out
differently depending on the child's age.
So it's really key for us to think about assess
ing the whole child. Along with that are othe
r areas of development. As soon as I see a c
hild in the waiting room, I'm looking at their
motor skills. How are they interacting with
their parent? Maybe they're eating a snack in
the waiting room. I'm looking at maybe thei
r feeding skills. So the point is we're looking
at the whole child at all points along the wa
y. And in doing so, you'll be trained to be a
keen observer.
Ultimately, we want a comprehensive assess
ment to collect baseline data. We need to un
derstand where a child is at a given point in
time. Next, is this a child who is in need of t
reatment right now? Do we have a sense of
what their prognosis is? Many of the factors
and data we're going to collect will help pla
y into this.
For instance, I might do some stimulability
work where I'm looking at how easily a chil
d can be trained to produce a sound or two.
Well, a child who's very trainable is likely to
have a better prognosis than a child who's n
ot trainable at all. And that's really just infor
ming my early decisionmaking and understanding of this child.
And then, of course, ultimately, our compre
hensive assessment is done not only to figur
e out if treatment is needed, but more import
antly, what to work on and how to sequence
treatment goals.
Week 2 Page 5
So the interview process in some level
begins before the child comes into the
clinic. Because you've had an intake f
orm, and you want to plan out what th
at interview is going to look like, from
outlining your questions to even the s
equence of your questions.
So when you're thinking of structuring
that interview, you want to begin with
the reason for the referral. Why is the
parent here? Who actually has referred
them to you? And is that referral base
d on-- what are the concerns that that r
eferral's based upon?
And so common referral sources are o
ften pediatrician, teacher, or the parent
or family member. What you also wa
nt to get a sense of is the parent's descr
iption of the problem. What are they c
oncerned about? And perhaps how tha
So to give you some information from an intake for
m and how I might work with that. If N.T. Is almost
a five-year-old child.
The child is referred by their teacher who's having di
fficulty understanding him. And the parents report th
at they do understand the child most of the time. But
they do show that the child had some early signs of
Week 2 Page 6
ften pediatrician, teacher, or the parent
or family member. What you also wa
nt to get a sense of is the parent's descr
iption of the problem. What are they c
oncerned about? And perhaps how tha
t problem might have changed over-- a
cross development.
Beyond that point, I like to sequence
my interview in a timeline from birth t
o present. And it just makes it easier w
hen you think of the sequence of askin
g questions. And that begins with, per
haps birth history, maybe even the pre
gnancy. The type of birth, whether it
was an uncomplicated birth, and whet
her it was a vaginal birth, a Csection, or any complications right aft
er.
That moves us into developmental hist
ory. We want to ask questions about th
e acquisition of developmental milesto
nes. And those could be motor milesto
nes, such as sitting up, crawling, walki
ng. To the range of speech motor mile
stones like, babbling, first words, and
so on. And what you want to lead up t
o is, well, what is the child's speech pr
oduction like today?
Medical history. And that is any medic
al information that you would need to
know from the past to the present. Wh
ether the child's taking any medication
. And we specifically direct our questi
ons to look at problems that are comm
on with children, such as ear infection
s or asthma, and specifically ask for-ask about any hospitalizations.
Next, I'd question about family history
. We do know that there can be genetic
underpinnings to speech and language
impairment. And so we do want to get
a sense of whether there's anyone else
in the family who's had a speech, lang
uage, learning, neurological issue, dev
elopmental issue, and some details abo
ut that.
Leading to educational history. Is the c
hild in school? What has the history of
their schooling been like? And where
are they right Now if this is someone
who's older and working, because adol
escents and adults can also have speec
h sound disorders, we'd ask about their
vocational history.
So conducting the interview, you want
to really know what information you
were given beforehand from any intak
e form. Think about that chronological
order I mentioned before. And try to a
sk open ended questions. "Tell me abo
ut" is more likely to get you a more de
tailed question-- than a-- more detailed
answer than a question that requires a
yes no response.
And then at some point, begin to comp
are with the interview-- the interview i
nformation with the intake form to loo
k for consistency and to ask about that
. So even though you've sequenced all
a five-year-old child.
The child is referred by their teacher who's having di
fficulty understanding him. And the parents report th
at they do understand the child most of the time. But
they do show that the child had some early signs of
speech delay that he outgrew o three years of age. So
that's an interesting point, you'd want to come back t
o.
They also describe how he received occupational the
rapy that focused on improving fine motor skills for
writing. Which is interesting, because he's already ve
ry young. But the parent did note that he's dropping- that he's having difficulty producing some sounds o
ff and dropping them, such as R, L, F, and V.
So here we have this little bit of information that cou
ld open up a whole range of questions. So, I love to
know more about what the teacher's saying. In what
context is the teacher having difficulty understandin
g the child? How is the child being understood by th
eir peers? By his peers.
I'd love to know more about those early signs of spe
ech delay. What did that involve? And did the child
outgrow that on his own? Was the child receiving tre
atment? And what were the goals of treatment?
Occupational therapy two times a week. When did th
is begin? And what is the concern about fine motor s
kill? Remember, fine motor school for writing, speec
h is also a fine motor skill. So what might have been
going on there? And what is currently being focused
upon?
And then I'd like to know more about those speech s
ound errors. And more broadly, what the child's intel
ligibility is like. So you can see how these are just a
few of the points that we would take from this infor
mation and build on.
Week 2 Page 7
are with the interview-- the interview i
nformation with the intake form to loo
k for consistency and to ask about that
. So even though you've sequenced all
this information out, you really do wa
nt to-- you have to think on your feet a
nd ask questions as you're going along
.
Some sample questions. So, for instan
ce, reason of referral, specifically, wha
t were you-- what was the child referre
d for? What are some specific concern
s? Perhaps related to birth history, I w
ould ask if-- I would ask a range of qu
estions. But that might include whethe
r the child was feeding normally right
after birth, and if there were any comp
lications with feeding early on. If the c
hild remained in the hospital longer th
an the mother. And so on.
Developmental, as I mentioned before,
those milestones. And medical, famil
y, educational, I think I gave you a fe
w examples of each early on. But you'
re really looking for as much detail as
possible about what might be going on
.
So a few things to remember. Listen c
arefully. You're really learning to be a
careful listener. And that's not easy wh
en you're a beginning clinician. So the
better prepared you are, the easier it w
ill be for you to listen and have follow
-up questions.
But always remember, be as detailed a
s you can. So when I talk about medic
al issues, rather than saying, does your
child have a medical condition? Whic
h might result in a yes or no answer. B
e specific. Does your child have asthm
a? Does your child have diabetes? Doe
s your child have any history of
ear infections? The more specific you
are, the more likely you are to get a de
tailed response.
Hearing screening and oral peripheral exam a
re two really important components of an ass
essment. And sometimes they are sort of pus
hed to the side, maybe not done due to time c
onstraints, or because a child may not necess
arily be compliant. In any event, these are tw
o areas that you really need to be thinking ab
out. And if for whatever reason they could no
t have been done during your initial assessme
nt, there needs to be a recommendation for th
em to be done quickly.
In terms of the screening, the reasoning here,
even if a child has had a comprehensive eval,
it's for you to get a sense of their hearing on
the day of the assessment. This is important b
ecause hearing can fluctuate, especially in chi
ldren. Well, hearing can fluctuate in children
who have otitis media. And since otitis media
is common in children, we want to get a sens
e of what might be going on the day you're te
sting.
How to do this? You can do this even using a
portable audiometer, screen hearing at 20dB
at both 1k, 2k, and 4k in both ears-- very, ver
y standard-- three times for each frequency, c
hild's going to get a pass or fail. And so if the
child fails, you would refer them for a compl
ete audiological eval. But quite honestly thou
gh, if the child has never had a complete audi
ological eval, even if they pass the screening
and they have marked speech production diff
iculties, I'd refer them for a complete audiolo
gical assessment. Because hearing is one thin
g we really truly can capture and why not rul
e that out as a possible etiology.
Comprehensive exam. The goal here is to ass
ess structure and function-- structural restricti
ons from impairment of speech function. So
we really want to get a sense of whether there
is some kind of their own weakness or perha
ps a learned pattern. And we can tell the diffe
rence between these two through a comprehe
nsive assessment. So for example, we might s
ee during speech that the child's not bringing
their lips together for plosives. And one migh
t say, well, perhaps there's an oral motor wea
kness and that's why they're not bringing thei
r lips together. But when we dive more deepl
y, we realize that motorically they can bring t
heir lips together, but that structure is not imp
aired, and necessarily function might not be.
They just might not be using the skills they h
ave in the context of speech appropriately.
So the peripheral exam is performed by the S
LP. Every individual with a speech language
or swallowing impairment should have a com
plete OPE to rule out impaired motor functio
n and structure. And we should do this early
on.
So there are different protocols that we can u
Week 2 Page 8
plete OPE to rule out impaired motor functio
n and structure. And we should do this early
on.
So there are different protocols that we can u
se. And the protocols can help us organize w
hat we're trying to look at to make sure that
we assess all of the articulators in a range of
different contexts. So the focus should be on
the content of that exam, because the exams
differ sometimes for different populations, an
d the clinicians understanding of it. And then
of course to be flexible, if we're taking a very
long comprehensive assessment, perhaps lik
e the VMPAC, this might be a comprehensiv
e assessment that we want to use with certain
children, but might be involved and maybe t
oo difficult to complete on one day. So anyw
ay, looking at the particular assessment that y
ou want to use is really key.
In terms of structure, making sure that we're
carefully looking at the oral articulators and d
etermining whether there might be an issue w
ith structure and/or function, this begins by lo
oking at facial appearance and making sure t
hat it is symmetrical at rest and then during
movement. We're looking specifically at ano
malies of all of the structures, even those that
are not involved in speech production such a
s the nose, necessarily, that's not an articulato
r, but plays a role, jaw and lips, as well as the
tongue, the teeth, the hard palettes, soft palat
e and uvula. So we'll go through some of thes
e components more deeply in your live sessio
n. But the point is really to look at each of th
ese structures and to make sure that they app
ear normal and that they are functioning as th
ey should.
So the standardized component of
a speech assessment involves either adm
inistering a standardized test or some typ
e of standardized protocol. Now, formal
articulation tests sometimes get a bad rap
. But there are advantages and disadvant
ages to using them, and it's important to l
ay that all out, and think about how that
plays out with the client that you're plan
ning on working with.
From the advantage point of view, the ad
Week 2 Page 9
ages to using them, and it's important to l
ay that all out, and think about how that
plays out with the client that you're plan
ning on working with.
From the advantage point of view, the ad
ministration is extremely straightforward
. Usually, a test can be administered in a
relatively short amount of time and will
provide you with information where you
can compare a child's performance to no
rmative data, which means you're going t
o compare a child's performance to perfo
rmance by other children of the same ag
e and gender. And that can be very infor
mative.
Disadvantages are that most standardize
d tests are limited in terms of the speakin
g context in which speech
is assessed within, meaning that most are
single word tests. Some might involve a
sentence or some aspect of connected sp
eech. In addition, the number of opportu
nities might also be limited. So some test
s
will claim that every speech sound is ass
essed in every word position, but that mi
ght only occur once. And so a child mig
ht only have one chance to prove to you
that they've got a sound or not, and that c
an be limiting.
On the other is that pure articulation test
s don't consider phonology. And so we n
eed to weigh these advantages and disad
vantages. And the way that I like to thin
k about this is, take the important elemen
ts of a standardized test. Understand its li
mitations, and then pair it with informal
measures that fill in the gaps.
So you have to choose an appropriate tes
t first. First and foremost, a test has to be
appropriate for a child's chronological a
ge. We should be looking at sounds that
are going to capture every
word position many times. The Initial, M
edial, Final framework is used.
It's great if you could find a test that look
s at sounds in more than one context, so
not only single words, maybe some sente
nce production, a test that allows more th
an one opportunity to examine sound pro
duction, a tool that helps you look at sti
mulability testing. So some tests will act
ually have a component where you can i
dentify sounds a child is having problem
s with, and then the test will have some
materials built into that to help you test f
or stimulability, meaning test to see if a
child can be cued to produce those sound
s accurately. And then lastly, tests that e
xamine vowel production. So many tests
, some tests do. Some tests do not and on
ly focus on consonants.
So some examples of articulation tests ar
e the GoldmanFristoe, which is very, very popular, and
the third edition was somewhat recently
updated, the Photo Articulation Test, the
DEAP we see commonly used, which is
the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulatio
Week 2 Page 10
But just to sum up this section, it's important
to be aware of pros and cons of standardized
testing, because this isn't specific to speech p
roduction testing. We see this across any typ
e of test we might administer. Population-- te
sts are standardized on a specific population,
and the test manual will specify all of that. D
oes your client match that population? We of
ten see vocabulary tests where the vocabular
y items might be designed for children who l
ive in the Midwest, and a child in New York
City may not be familiar with those items si
mply because they've never seen them.
So
it's something for you to think about. And if
not, is it appropriate to administer that test to
the child? And is it appropriate if you do to r
eport those scores? And that's a very importa
nt discussion that can be continued.
Sample of behaviors-- remembering that we'r
e just collecting a little bit of information and
making big judgments based on that. And so
we need to be careful about not only using st
andardized testing results to make those judg
ments. Attention-- some children will not be
able to attend on a standardized task. That co
uld affect performance greatly. And if you su
spect that the performance during any standa
rdized measure is impacted by attention, that
needs to be reported in your diagnostic report
, and the clinician needs to make a decision
Week 2 Page 11
the third edition was somewhat recently
updated, the Photo Articulation Test, the
DEAP we see commonly used, which is
the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulatio
n and Phonology, as well as the FisherLogemann, which is quite old, but still u
sed in a number of places. And so these
are some popular tests that are used. It's r
eally the clinician's job to really explore
the use of these different tests and the ap
propriateness of their use with the client
you're working with.
There are also a few tests that are geared
towards phonology, like the BernthalBankson, rather, the BanksonBernthal Test of Phonology, the Hodson
Assessment of Phonological Patterns, th
e ALPHA, and the KLPA, which is the
KhanLewis. Just to highlight one of these, the
KhanLewis is interesting because it's actually
meant to be paired with the GoldmanFristoe Test of Articulation, and is an ov
erlay onto the GoldmanFristoe. So you can use the results from t
he GoldmanFristoe to also explore the use of phonol
ogical patterns in a child.
So just to highlight one test to give you a
sense of what it looks like, not necessari
ly to highlight this as the best test, becau
se you never want to think about that in t
erms of standardized testing, necessarily.
But what does a test look like? Well, the
GoldmanFristoe is a picture identification test wh
ere children will be shown pictures, and t
he clinician is guided to ask particular qu
estions or comments that will elicit a res
ponse. And those responses will be inten
ded so that the child produces sounds in
either the initial, medial, or final position
of words. This particular test does look
at sounds and words and phrases, and do
es have a stimulability testing componen
t to it.
spect that the performance during any standa
rdized measure is impacted by attention, that
needs to be reported in your diagnostic report
, and the clinician needs to make a decision
whether those results are representative of w
hat the child is doing.
And remembering that standardized testing is
n't going to represent connected speech. It's n
ot going to represent what happens when a c
hild is generating speech on their own, possi
bly also taxed by linguistic demands when th
ey're thinking about what they need to say. S
o that's a really important focus in this course
is to learn how to weave in components of v
aried assessment protocols into the results an
d decision making that's going to be formed.
Week 2 Page 12
At some point, you've all taken a cour
se in basic statistics. And you may ha
ve thought, when will I ever use this i
nformation? Well, if you haven't used
it yet, now's the time. You're going t
o apply some of the basic concepts yo
u learned and basic stats to interpretin
g standardized test scores. And I'll gu
ide you through that.
So let's first look at a bellshaped curve. What you notice about
a bellshaped curve is that it's fat in the cent
er. It's fat in the center, because if this
curve were used to represent test sco
res, it would mean that most people s
cored at a point somewhere in the mi
ddle where the curve is fattest.
And so we're going to begin to think
about how-- it would be somewhere a
round here. And how individuals who
scored really well in that test are goi
ng to score somewhere around here.
And individuals who did not score w
ell will be at the low end of this conti
nuum. So the curve is fat because the
re
are more data points somewhere in th
e middle. And that data point is your
mean where that lines up with zero.
The standard score is the distance a s
core is from the average score of the t
est group. So how far that score may
fall from the mean in standard deviati
on units. The advantage of converting
a raw score-- so let me mention that f
or a moment.
We give a test. You're going to get a r
aw score. The test manual will guide
you through a way of converting that
raw score into a standard score.
And the advantage of doing so is that
you can then talk about standard scor
es across different measurements that
you may have given. Perhaps you ga
ve the child three or four different tes
ts to tap into different areas. Well, wh
en you start talking about standard sc
ore, you put them on the same scale.
Often, scores have a mean
of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
But that can differ depending on the
tool that you're using.
So if we're looking here at this bell cu
rve again, the standard score
is right in the center. And you can see
how the standard score of 100 aligns
with the mean, the fattest part of the c
urve. If we move higher, if we go one
standard deviation unit up, that mean
s you would have a standard score of
115. And if you were to go one stand
ard deviation down, you'd have a stan
dard score of 85.
s you would have a standard score of
115. And if you were to go one stand
ard deviation down, you'd have a stan
dard score of 85.
So just to give you a scenario, if a chi
ld scored at around the mean, they w
ould have a standard score of 100. Bu
t if a child scored above the mean, we
would then begin to describe how m
any standard deviation units above th
ey are or how many standard deviatio
ns below. So for instance, a child wh
o scores at a standard score of 130 is t
wo standard deviations above the me
an. And so you can see here how thes
e are our standard deviation units. An
d I'm highlighting that that child is sc
oring two standard deviations above t
he mean.
Alternatively, a child might receive a
standard score of 70. And they would
be two standard deviations below the
mean. So important part here when l
ooking at a bell curve is that these nu
mbers align. Your standing deviation
units will align with your standard sc
ore.
We could also talk about a percentile
ranking. And a percentile ranking is t
he percentile score that's given a relat
ive ranking. And it indicates what's
a percentage of individuals in the sam
ple that the test was standardized on
who scored either higher or lower tha
n your participant or your client.
So for instance, if we look at the 50th
percentile, that's the midpoint of the
axis where 50% of the population wil
l score higher and 50% of the populat
ion would score lower. But what abo
ut the third percentile. Let's look at th
e third percentile here. The third perc
entile might fall right about here. So i
t means that everyone above that chil
d, almost 97% of children the same a
ge scored better than your client.
Another scenario. Let's say a child ha
s a percentile ranking of 75. Well, tha
t means that that would probably fall
right about here. And as you can see,
that child is above the mean, between
0 and 1 standard deviations above th
e mean, and has a standard score of p
erhaps about 110, because it would al
ign.
And so this is how we will take all th
ese different scores. You're not calcul
ating these scores manually. You're g
oing to use the raw score and the chil
d's age and gender to derive using the
manual. But the interpretation is reall
y important.
Standard scores. The standard scores,
also called zscores, are used to determine the diffe
rence between a given score and the
mean of the group. And so the scale c
an have a mean of 0 and a standard d
eviation of 1.
Week 2 Page 13
rence between a given score and the
mean of the group. And so the scale c
an have a mean of 0 and a standard d
eviation of 1.
And so again, we use zscores. They're a type of standard sco
re. Like we had said before, to compa
re z-scores across different tests.
And then lastly, the stanine. It's show
n as marked intervals also on the hori
zontal axis. The extremes are 1 and 9,
and the mean is 5. So the range of no
rmal would be the limits between the
third and the seventh stanine.
And so if we look at the big picture-as you're beginning to think and learn
this, begin with what's simplest. And
that is begin with what is happening
at the mean. And that's really at this p
oint. If this is the mean, a mean will li
ne up with a standard score of 100, w
ith
a percentile of 50, and with a stanine
of 5.
A couple other important things, conf
idence interval. Remember that if we
administer a test to an individual, that
score
is just an estimate. And it would be li
kely to vary from one task to another
and from one day to another.
Think about your SAT score or your
GRE score. I'm sure most of you took
those exams more than one time. Yo
u did not receive precisely the same s
core each time you took it. So the con
fidence interval is intended for us to u
nderstand that the true score is a rang
e.
It's not a precise measure. And so that
range is captured by the confidence i
nterval. And so for instance, we can u
se a 90% confidence interval to get a
range of scores to say that, well, if I
were to administer this test again, the
child is likely to fall within a given ra
nge. And you'll see that in
an example shortly.
Age equivalents. Many tests give age
equivalent scores. And this reflects th
e median score obtained by subjects i
n a group, not the mean.
Unfortunately, age equivalents are oft
en misinterpreted. And so you will fi
nd that you administer a four-yearold an articulation test, and their age
equivalent is two years, six months. I
prefer not to use age equivalence, bec
ause that score, that ageequivalent rating, is often misinterpre
ted as something like, well, the child i
s functioning like a two and a half ye
ar old. And that is really a huge overs
tatement. It means that the child's arti
culatory-- the performance on this sca
le on that day was similar to two-anda half-yearolds who were administered the same
Week 2 Page 14
tatement. It means that the child's arti
culatory-- the performance on this sca
le on that day was similar to two-anda half-yearolds who were administered the same
tests.
So let's look at a real example. If we'r
e working with a child who is a little
bit older than four and they obtain a r
aw score on the GFTA of 65, we wou
ld use the test manual to convert that
score to a standard score. And we are
told from the manual that the standar
d score
is 42. The percentile is less than one.
And the confidence interval is 36 to 4
8.
So let's talk about what this means fir
st. First, that standard score is, just re
membering the bell curves we looked
at before, certainly going to be belo
w the mean. And you want to then lo
ok at your bell curve to figure out pre
cisely how far below the mean.
The percentile of less than 1 means th
at at least 99% of children of this chil
d's age and gender who are administe
red this test performed better. That's a
pretty big statement. And then finall
y, the 95% confidence interval.
I mentioned before a 90% confidence
interval. We can also use a 95% conf
idence interval. They
are derived statistically.
And this simply means, if I were to a
dminister this test to this child on a di
fferent day, their score is likely to fall
within the range of 36 to 48. That sta
ndard score, it was 42. But if we were
to readminister, it will fall within this rang
e. And that's helpful in helping us thi
nk about how children might perform
differently on a different day.
So just to sum that all up, our raw sco
re
of 42, we were wondering how far be
low the mean that would fall. Well, th
at's quite far, because
it's going to be right around here. An
d because these different components
align, that means that the percentile
was less than one. Here's one. It's cert
ainly less than one.
And this child falls between three and
four standard deviations below the m
ean. And I highlight the word "below,
" because it's really important that tha
t language is used to distinguish from
above the mean. And remember that
if we were to give this child the test a
gain, their score is likely to fall betwe
en 36 and 48, their raw score. So eve
n though that's a range, that still is bet
ween three and four standard deviatio
ns below the mean, which is quite im
paired.
And
the last point, we would never solely
Week 2 Page 15
ns below the mean, which is quite im
paired.
And
the last point, we would never solely
use this information for diagnostic pu
rposes. It's only a piece of the puzzle.
So even though the child performed
quite poorly, we would still conduct a
complete assessment and look at perf
ormance in other areas.
The formal component of a speech assessme
nt is where we use standardized tools to bett
er understand a child's speech production pa
ttern. And we went through the pros and con
s of using such tools. Now, we'll move towa
rd an informal speech assessment, which is
an equally as important, if not so more impo
rtant a component of the assessment.
Speech sampling is key. And it's also an art.
It's often difficult for beginning clinicians to
feel comfortable collecting a representative
sample. And what that means is that some c
hildren are just really not happy to come int
o a clinic room and sit down and chat with a
clinician. And we'll get to some of the chall
enges in a bit. But why this is important is k
ey.
For one, we're likely to see more errors in co
nnected speech than in single words. And w
hen we think back to the test that we briefly
talked about, they're likely to sample only a
few of the speech sounds that a child-- well,
they're likely to sample all sounds, tests, but
may only do so at a oneword position. We're going to get a more var
ied range of speech sounds that a child is pr
oducing using a speech sample.
The errors that we see in connected speech a
re likely to be different than at the word leve
l. And we can also dive into phonological pa
tterns or processes in greater depth. So what'
s important is that the speech sample obtaine
d is naturalistic.
And you can begin by going back to your int
ake form. When parents reported what the c
hild liked, you can build on that and weave t
hat into the speech simple that you're going t
o elicit. You can use toys or objects that are
based on the child's interests and that might
encourage them to speak more.
It's easy to fall into the trap of asking a lot of
questions, especially with a child who migh
t not be speaking a lot. So we want to try to
avoid that and use openended comments, like tell me about. And so
we can also structure our activities to target
a few different kinds of contexts in order to
do this.
Lastly, we can look at how a child is interact
ing and record that while they're interacting
with parents and siblings. The key is we just
don't want to collect a speech sample. We
want it to be naturalistic and representative
of the child's speech in day-to-day activities.
So what we can try to do for this sample to b
e representative is to try to sample a few diff
erent communicative contexts. And maybe o
Week 2 Page 16
of the child's speech in day-to-day activities.
So what we can try to do for this sample to b
e representative is to try to sample a few diff
erent communicative contexts. And maybe o
ne context will be better than another. There
are ways of maybe doing a story retell, as I'l
l show you in a bit, where you read a wordle
ss picture book with a child and they maybe
tell a story to you.
You can also have a much less structured se
ssion where you have structured play that yo
u're engaging with with the child. One thing
clinicians can also do is set up an environme
nt for a communicative breakdown. And ma
ybe you're playing and you've set the situati
on up that you're playing with a farm and th
e animals run out of food and the child woul
d have to help you figure out how to deal wi
th that issue.
Importantly, the sample has to be recorded.
Audio recordings, video recordings are great
if you can also get them. And making sure t
hat the environment is appropriate for recor
ding. If you're working in a school, that mig
ht be challenging.
And if the parent is not involved in bringing
the child to treatment, such as in a school en
vironment, you'd want to make sure you hav
e the parents' permission to do the recording
, as well. It's great if, even though you're rec
ording, you're doing some online, meaning o
n-thespot transcription. And that might not be tra
nscribing every single sound the child's mak
ing, but highlighting errors that you're notici
ng right then and there.
Now can this sometimes not work well? It c
ertainly can. Some children are completely u
nintelligible. And so the true representative
sample is something that you really struggle
to transcribe. That doesn't mean that it can't
really have added value and that we can loo
k at some ways to make sense of that.
What's also quite common, especially with y
ounger children, is that they may be reluctan
t to engage in conversation with the examine
r. They may be fine with you. They might b
e all right separating from their parent. But t
hat doesn't mean they want to sit down and
have a conversation with you. And so being
skillful and thinking of ways to work with c
hildren like that is really helpful.
We also might not be able to target all Engli
sh phonemes in our play scenario or interact
ion, informal interaction. And that's why pai
ring connected speech sampling with a stand
ardized test can really work very nicely. In t
erms of the unintelligible child, the best-- if
you know or suspect that a child might have
intelligibility difficulties, you want to struct
ure the assessment as much as you can. And
that means that perhaps having them tell yo
u about their favorite movie wouldn't be the
best way to go, unless you know that movie
in and out.
So structure the assessment as much as you
can. If it's a play scenario, you want to have
lots of items. And that way you understand t
he context.
Week 2 Page 17
in and out.
So structure the assessment as much as you
can. If it's a play scenario, you want to have
lots of items. And that way you understand t
he context.
Another great thing you can do is repeat the
child's utterances as you're going along. And
so if the child produces something and in th
at moment, you know what they're referring
to, you can say, oh, you're talking about the
pig. And then move on from there. That way
when you go to transcribe, you have the ref
erent. And provide as much of the context as
possible, meaning if you're providing the co
ntext for the child, you will understand the it
ems that they're trying to-- or the words they
're trying to say.
Sample size-- how big should the sample be
? Well, I want to tell you that in an ideal wo
rld, a 100word sample is great. Is that always realistic
? Well, no. Depending on how errored the s
peech is, it could take a lot of time to transcr
ibe. And you'll learn to do that through this
course. And you'll get better with that over ti
me.
But there is some evidence to show that eve
n a 50word speech sample can be valuable. And th
ere's some evidence to show that a 50word speech sample plus a standardized test
might really give you a nice amount of infor
mation. So 50 words that are really represen
tative, that you think represent the child's na
tural speech, pair that with a standardized te
st and that should work.
So a few last things-- stimulability testing. I'
ve mentioned this a few times. And you'll ac
tually learn how to conduct stimulability test
ing. But it's really key. And we use stimulab
ility testing to help us see what we can do to
encourage a child to accurately produce a m
isarticulated sound.
So this means you're going to examine soun
ds produced in error. You're actually going t
o provide some instruction. So you will hav
e identified that perhaps that sound-- you'll u
nderstand the word position in which the so
und is produced in error. And you're going t
o provide instruction to cue the child to prod
uce that sound first in isolation and then syll
able, word, and, if possible, phrase and sente
nce level.
So if the child is stimulable, if the child can
be cued, you'll move through that hierarchy
of context. But you'll have to use cuing-- I s
how here "use cuing if necessary." Most of t
he time, stimulability involves cuing. And s
o that cuing could be something very basic, l
ike a verbal cue, an auditory cue, or a visual
cue or maybe even a tactile cue, where you'r
e actually touching the child's face to help th
em to produce the sound.
And so we're trying to gauge with that input
by the clinician how well can the child prod
uce a sound. And then once we've done that,
we can look at different
word positions. Clearly, we can't always loo
k at every sound produced in error through s
Week 2 Page 18
The dynamic assessment component of a
n evaluation involves the clinician gettin
g in there and trying to facilitate accurate
production and assessing what goes on a
uce a sound. And then once we've done that,
we can look at different
word positions. Clearly, we can't always loo
k at every sound produced in error through s
timulability testing. But it's a great way duri
ng your assessment to see how the child res
ponds to cuing, to get a sense of their learni
ng style and how amenable to change their p
atterns are.
And then this last part is a reminder that dyn
amic assessment is really important. Dynam
ic assessment is an active component of an a
ssessment, where the clinician is looking at t
he child's skills, providing input to facilitate
correct production, and then evaluating how
the child's responding to that input. In stimul
ability, we're looking at the child's response
to cuing. But in a dynamic assessment, I mi
ght then use the information the child's givin
g me to alter the way I'm providing cuing an
d seeing if that works.
What we're really trying to do is use a variet
y of different cues that are based on the clie
nt's performance and then taxing the system.
And I'm going to come to this in a few diffe
rent points in this course. And what I mean
by taxing the system is seeing what the child
's limits are, not only what their output is. So
rather than just showing a child a picture, h
aving them respond, and me recording that, l
earning what I can do to shape that response
and how I can push the child to produce mo
re and more complex speech to examine the
errors that are related to that speech. And we
'll get into that in more depth throughout this
course.
Week 2 Page 19
The dynamic assessment component of a
n evaluation involves the clinician gettin
g in there and trying to facilitate accurate
production and assessing what goes on a
long the way. So when we think about h
ow assessment informs treatment first w
e're examining the level of functioning.
Where is the child at this point in time?
But we also need to understand the level
of breakdown. And so looking at dynami
c assessment can help us get there. If yo
u recall, I highlighted how the purpose o
f your assessment is to develop appropri
ate and accurate treatment goals. But if
we don't understand where the child brea
ks down and where their level of functio
ning is, it's difficult to do this.
So part of the dynamic assessment can in
clude introducing strategies that might b
e useful in order to facilitate accurate pro
duction, identifying how well and how a
ccessible those strategies are to a child, h
ow well they respond to them, and then e
xploring the potential for change. And so
some of the strategies we may use invol
ve cueing, where we're providing clear a
uditory input, clear verbal cues and/or vi
sual cues, or even tactile, evaluating how
responsive the child is to the use of thos
e cues, and exploring whether the child c
an use the cue and actually change the be
havior.
Embedded within this concept is the imp
ortance of taxing the system. And so wh
en we're trying to see where the trial wou
ld break down in terms of their speech pr
oduction level, we can do that in a numb
er of ways. We could provide them with
words to produce that would cue them or
encourage them to produce words that a
re longer in syllable number, so meaning
if the child is only producing single wor
d responses with you or their responses o
f any word are one syllable in length, we
might encourage them through an imitat
ion task to produce two or three syllable
words and see how they perform.
We might increase phonetic complexity
by increasing place manner or voicing ch
aracteristics. So for example, if I see that
the child is only productive for plosive p
honemes, I might, in this dynamic assess
ment, encourage them to produce other t
ypes of phonemes, perhaps a fricative, to
see if that could be imitated when pushe
d. And then we could increase cognitive
load. So if we encourage the child to per
haps tell us a story or have to think about
their language output and think about li
nguistically what they're trying to say, w
e're increasing their cognitive load and s
ee what the impact is on speech output.
Why do we do this? We do this because
we simply don't want to rely on the child
's output. Because in children with signif
icant impairment, that output
is going to be very little. They'll only giv
e you CV responses with probably very f
ew phonemes embedded.
At the conclusion of your assessment, clinicia
ns are left with the task of differential diagno
sis. This
is simply distinguishing between different dia
gnostic possibilities. So what are some consid
erations? Well, what we're left trying to do is
understand the child's history, and within that
context, look at the speech production and/or
phonological errors. How do we do that?
Well, we're looking for evidence of motor spe
ech deficits, and whether that might be underl
ying the difficulties the child's having. We w
ant to look for evidence of maybe phonetic is
sues and/or phonological issues through the a
ir patterns that we might unveil. We're trying
to capture a child's phonetic inventory. So wh
en we talked about our independent analysis,
that's setting us up for exploring the range of
the phonetic inventory, the sounds that are pr
esent in the inventory, and then as we move t
o the relational analysis, we're then
able to capture the error types and error patter
ns.
So once we have all that evidence, we need to
then understand it within the context of diffe
rent speaking situations, meaning how does t
his child perform during a single word task, v
ersus a conversational task, versus maybe a c
omplex syllable repetition task? Across that,
how consistent are errors? Are they very cons
istent, or inconsistent in a variety of different
ways?
We then come back to our perception. How d
o errors influence speech intelligibility? So y
ou're the clinician. How do you perceive how
easily this child is understood? So that's the
qualitative piece.
The quantitative piece is taking a measure lik
e percent consonant correct and then compari
ng and interpreting that information, and com
paring it to your impression. So if a child fall
s in the severe range in terms of their PCC re
call under 50%, that means that they have sev
erely reduced speech intelligibility. Does that
match with your perception of their intelligib
ility?
Another factor that comes into differential dia
gnosis is treatment history and progress. Man
y of the children you see have been through s
ome treatment already. What has been worke
d on and what has worked and not worked? A
nd then, of course, the overall impact on func
Week 2 Page 20
's output. Because in children with signif
icant impairment, that output
is going to be very little. They'll only giv
e you CV responses with probably very f
ew phonemes embedded.
But if we push so that we can see how w
ell the child could imitate, we might be a
ble to see patterns that were not evident
during testing. One of those patterns cou
ld be articulatory groping. We then migh
t be better able to see how far we can pus
h the child, where their level
of breakdown really will be. And probab
ly, another very important component of
this is to look at the strategies that a chil
d uses to improve their speech.
Some kids are incredibly responsive to a
visual cue, such as an imitation. Some ch
ildren are incredibly responsive to tactile
cues, where they're encouraged to produ
ce a bilabial phoneme by gently bringing
the lips together. And some children do
not like tactile cues and are hypersensitiv
e and don't react well to them. So you'll
only know that if you get in there and yo
u begin to tax their system with these dif
ferent approaches.
y of the children you see have been through s
ome treatment already. What has been worke
d on and what has worked and not worked? A
nd then, of course, the overall impact on func
tional communication. On some level, perhap
s we should start here. Because all of the wor
k that we do is to improve functional commu
nication. And so we really need to get a sense
in thinking about this differential diagnosis,
and how functional communication is impact
ed, and whether there are other methods that
need to be considered at this point, like augm
entative systems.
So in considering these factors, we're really tr
ying to distinguish one disorder from another
disorder. That might be a phonetic problem v
ersus a phonological problem, apraxia of spee
ch versus dysarthria. That's what differential
diagnosis puts us in a position to do.
Lastly, we don't work in a bubble. And so we
need to work as part of a team, depending on
what the child's needs are. Are
there other speech pathologists involved? An
d many times, children who are severely imp
aired have a team of individuals who are wor
king with them. We need to be able to comm
unicate with them maybe not so that we're all
working on precisely the same goals, but that
our methods are in sync.
We also need to be in communication with ph
ysicians who are treating the child and any ot
her services that the child might be receiving,
PT/OT, services in school. We need to be in
sync with what's happening in the classroom,
and the teacher needs to be involved and und
erstand what you're working on in your treat
ment. Similarly, what other services is the chi
ld receiving in school? Are there reading serv
ices? Are there additional educational service
s? Is there counseling going on?
And then finally, family members. We'll spen
d a chunk of this time discussing generalizati
on, and that means carryover of what's worke
d on in a treatment room outside of therapy. I
n order for generalization to happen, you nee
d to create a culture of generalization early, w
hich must involve getting family members in
volved. So these are factors that we're going t
o continue to build on as you develop a team
that will begin treating children with speech
sound disorders.
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TA
Thursday, January 28, 2021
4:27 PM
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Printout
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
6:10 PM
Week 2 Page 39
Both the Templin Darley and the Fisher Logeman
n have very small sections designed specifically f
or a screening to identify someone who might nee
d a comprehensive assessment. A screening is nev
er used to form a diagnosis.
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Printout
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
6:11 PM
Week 2 Page 44
1. If a child receives a standard score of 85, how many standard deviations are they away from the
mean? What is the percentile? What does that mean?
-1, 16th
2. If a child receives a standard score of 60, how many standard deviations below the mean does
their performance fall?
Over 2 standard deviations below the mean- this is considerably below average
3. Based on standardized testing, if a child’s score falls between 85 and 100, is therapy always
warranted?
- within average range/ may be low average/ may not be warranted.
- Important to consider impact on Individual
Week 2 Page 45
Printout
Sunday, January 10, 2021
6:11 PM
Our first step of beginning to analyze child's
speech is to conduct
the independent analysis. And we use the ter
m independent because we're looking at
the child's production independent of the adu
lt form. So we're simply looking at speech o
utput, the sounds a child
is producing, not comparing that to what the
word or sound should have been.
So the independent analysis helps us underst
and if phonetic development is typical. We'll
be able to identify the sounds a child
is producing and to see if they're developme
ntally appropriate. We can use development
al norms to decide that.
We could begin to then see if later developin
g sounds are coming in and then do a variety
of different analyses. So for example, we ca
n tell whether there are more sounds in certa
in word positions over others. We could loo
k at the place, manner, and
voicing characteristics of the sounds that are
being produced, to identify if there are any
preferences, and then look at whether there a
re any unusual sounds that a child might be
using, sounds that are either not developmen
tally appropriate or perhaps not even in the l
anguage, the child's primary language.
So the procedure to follow is to obtain a sele
ction of the child's productions. What we wil
l do, in this course, is conduct an independen
t analysis based on the results of the singleword articulation test. And the reason for doi
ng that is that we know, by the choice of a g
ood test, that speech sounds will be assessed
, that all speech sounds in English will be as
sessed, and in all word positions. So we kno
w that there'll be opportunities to produce all
sounds in the language.
What we'll then do is transcribe the results.
And we're going to plot out the results, using
a model
and replica chart. And I will show you how t
o do that. It simply means that we are going
to take each sound that's produced and categ
orizing it by word position into different gro
ups, and then analyzing whether sounds are
productive, marginal, and absent. And I'll de
fine these in the next slide.
So once we've examined all sounds produce
d by a child, in doing so-- just to repeat-- we'
re not considering the adult target. So if the t
arget were cup, and the child says cuh, we're
only looking at cuh. We don't really care, at
this point, that the child dropped the final P.
We're simply looking at the fact that the chil
d produced a velar plosive along with the vo
wel.
And so once we've gotten all our data, we're
going to tally the number of times each phon
eme was produced in each word position an
Week 3 Page 1
d produced a velar plosive along with the vo
wel.
And so once we've gotten all our data, we're
going to tally the number of times each phon
eme was produced in each word position an
d come with the following definitions. A pro
ductive phoneme is a phoneme produced thr
ee or more times across the word positions.
This isn't by separating word positions. So if
there was one P at the initial position of wor
ds, a P at the end of a word, and a P at
the middle of a word, as long as there
are three in that sample, we would say that t
hat P is productive. Marginal phonemes are
produced once or twice, again, across word
positions. And absent phonemes are not pro
duced at all.
Now importantly, we would do a place, man
ner, or voicing analysis. And this simply me
ans-- coming back to-- I told you we would
keep coming back to place, manner, or voici
ng-- examining place, manner, or voicing for
each productive, marginal, and absent phon
emes-- and think of it this way. If I've identif
ied a phoneme that's productive, I really wan
t to get a sense of, well, if this is something
a child's doing well, what are the place, man
ner, and voicing characteristics? What is pos
sible in the child's phonological system?
For the marginal phonemes, I might look at,
well, what is emerging in the child's system?
And then absent, what is not present at all?
And so I'm looking for place, manner, and v
oicing preferences. In doing so, I might be lo
oking for whether there's a prevalence of int
erior sounds, maybe of stops, voice consona
nts. So those are some common preferences
in young children.
And I'm going to analyze clusters separately.
And so we will have a place for-- we will ju
st simply list our clusters off to the side. We'
re not breaking those clusters up and looking
at where they place in the model and replica
chart.
And so we'll do a work position analysis. W
e're going to look at how many times a soun
d is produced in the given word position. W
e'll also include a vowel analysis, not only c
onsonants. We care about the vowels. So we'
re going to look at vowels, how often they're
produced, and compare them to the vowel q
uadrilateral. I'm really looking-- remember t
hat that space reflects the space in their oral
cavity. I'm interested in whether the child
is using a range of vowels that span across t
he oral cavity.
We can also do a syllable and word structure
analysis, meaning look at, again, not what t
he intended form was, but what are the child'
s preferred syllable and word structural prefe
rences? Are all these words produced have a
CV structure? Are there any CVC structures
, and so on? And of course, we can compare
this to developmental norms. Once we know
what the child is producing, we'll take their
chronological age and look at what the litera
ture has shown, in terms of what sounds chil
Week 3 Page 2
this to developmental norms. Once we know
what the child is producing, we'll take their
chronological age and look at what the litera
ture has shown, in terms of what sounds chil
dren should be producing at that age.
Model and
replica charts are a great way of cate
gorizing speech sound production. A
s you'll see, they're organized by wor
d position, place and manner of artic
ulation, and the data is going to allow
us to think about matches between th
e model and replica. And
variability and targeted achievement,
and then the error patterns. So it's rea
lly going to enable us to look at reall
y what's motoritcally possible for the
child.
To do so, we will calculate the freque
ncy of occurrence of each phoneme a
cross all the word
positions. So, recall we learned about
how to think about word position. T
his is a position that relates to not jus
t the word, but syllables within the w
ord. Syllable initial word initial, sylla
ble initial word within, syllable final
word final, and syllable final word wi
thin.
And so we'll take the child productio
ns, categorize them by word position,
and then determine whether, after lo
oking at a whole sample, which phon
emes are productive, which are margi
nal, and which are absent, again, by c
ombining, when looked at combined
across all word positions.
And one note to highlight is that we'r
e looking at clusters separately. So if
the child is producing the cluster PL,
as in play, we are not going to break t
hat up into P and
L. We keep PL together and put it off
to the side and analyze clusters separ
ately.
So let me orient you to the model and
replica chart. If we start off with the
Week 3 Page 3
to the side and analyze clusters separ
ately.
So let me orient you to the model and
replica chart. If we start off with the
syllable initial word initial position,
what you simply see here-- I mean, e
very word position looks the same.
We've got syllable initial word initial
, right next to it, syllable final word fi
nal. Down below, syllable initial wor
d within, syllable final word within.
And if you look at the way the charts
are laid out, they're laid out so that an
terior phonemes are on one side, and
the posterior phonemes are on the ba
ck side, kind of like the oral cavity. A
nd that the only phonemes included i
n each group are the ones that would
be seen in that group.
So, we don't see H in the syllable fina
l word final position when we transcr
ibe speech. And therefore, it wouldn't
be listed there.
The reason why this is important is th
at we can analyze segments in all pos
itions of words instead of only one w
ord position at a time. And we can al
so use this to paint a picture of the ch
ild's phonetic inventory, the number
of matches in their speech. We could,
over time, look at whether what they
're producing matches to the adult for
m. Their variability. And over time er
ror patterns.
But we're really starting out by-- whe
n we think about using this in indepe
ndent analysis, not really worrying ab
out the error patterns right now.
And then, place manner voicing com
es back again. You're not only going
to identify which phonemes are prod
uctive, marginal and absent in the inv
entory. You're going to look at the pl
ace manner and voicing characteristic
s of those phonemes.
So when you look at all the productiv
e phonemes, you want to analyze tho
se phonemes to understand whether t
here's a preference in terms of place.
Perhaps the child prefers anterior pho
nemes, and the only productive phon
emes are all anterior phonemes. May
be in terms of matter, there's a prefer
ence for stops over fricatives, and so
on. And so plotting all of this out will
help you understand that.
So let's take a look at what a speech s
ample might look like. What you're s
eeing on one side is the intended for
m. And when I use the term intended
form, it means what the child was int
ending to say or what the adult form i
s. And the spoken form is the child's
production. Note that the spoken for
m is always shown in brackets. And
you should be getting in the habit of t
ranscribing any intended form or any
Week 3 Page 4
production. Note that the spoken for
m is always shown in brackets. And
you should be getting in the habit of t
ranscribing any intended form or any
adult form in IPA. Right?
So what we're simply seeing is that th
e child has a range of productions, a
production for each word. And the w
ord dog, for example, is produced as
da. Now we're not considering, we're
not even looking at that error. We're
not looking at the fact that the G was
dropped. We're only looking at what
was actually produced here for every
single word.
And so now, we're going to take a su
bset of those words, just for ease of a
nalysis right now. And we're going to
plug this into a model replica chart.
And just as an example, I'm going to
only work on the initial sounds that a
re produced.
So, SIWI means syllable initial word
initial. And I'm going to take each ph
oneme and identify where it belongs
on this chart. So, the D in da, the D i
n
da, is going to go right over here. On
e tally mark. And so I'm going to cou
nt. I'm going to go through each wor
d one at a time. And I'm only countin
g right now syllable initial word initi
al.
And so the next word is daddy. And
the child gets one tally mark here. Th
e next is a G. Right? I'm right
up to this point. And that's going to b
e plotted in over here. We have one
more G. One more D. Next is B. OK,
I'm right over here. So I'm simply on
e more B in baby. Another B. One m
ore D. And the last D.
So you can simply see how I just add
ed tally marks to represent each time
a sound was produced in the syllable
initial word initial position. Importan
tly, we're not purposely ignoring the
other word positions. You're going-you would go and fill that all in in
the appropriate place. But I just want
ed to use this for an example.
And the next step would be to count
how many of each were produced. So
, there are five D's, three B's, and two
G's. Which tells us that if we think o
f our definitions for productive margi
nal, D is productive. B is productive,
right? They're both three or more. An
d G is marginal. Marginal is defined
as once or twice.
And if I wanted to take this a step fur
ther, and give you maybe a summary
statement, I would say that these are
all voiced plosive phonemes. But that
both anterior and posterior phoneme
s are produced, although two of the t
hree happened to be posterior.
Week 3 Page 5
statement, I would say that these are
all voiced plosive phonemes. But that
both anterior and posterior phoneme
s are produced, although two of the t
hree happened to be posterior.
And then I would simply continue thi
s by looking at the other word positio
ns to see if I'm seeing similar results.
Ultimately, we're kind of left with a s
ummary statement and some input int
o how this child is producing sounds.
But that this is likely to be a very li
mited inventory given the number of
sounds that are produced.
In contrast to the independent analysis wher
e we were examining the child's speech outp
ut independent of the adult form, the relation
al analysis will directly compare the child's
production to the adult form. This is where
we're really looking at getting at the error pa
tterns.
So we're going to ideally take this informati
on from a connected speech sample. And the
reasoning why we want to use connected sp
eech is because it is more naturalistic. And
we want to get an index of what the child-what's representative of their day-today speech. From this, we can find out a lot
of intricate details, such as are fricatives pro
duced as stops, or are liquids produced as gli
des. What kind of substitution might be goin
g on? And there are many possibilities.
We also want to look at the consistency of th
Week 3 Page 6
duced as stops, or are liquids produced as gli
des. What kind of substitution might be goin
g on? And there are many possibilities.
We also want to look at the consistency of th
e pattern. So if, during a play situation, the c
hild were to produce the word "cat" three or
four times, and the child produces the word i
n error, are the errors always going to take t
he same pattern?
So this type of analysis will let us dive into s
omething that we haven't gotten to before, a
nd that is the study of phonological processe
s, also called phonological patterns. Whether
errors might include-- and I'll define proces
ses for you in a bit-- whether errors might in
clude substitutions, omissions, deletions, or
additions, what kinds of changes might be h
appening.
We also want to get a sense of whether there
are word position preferences. So just as mu
ch as we're interested in the error, we also w
ant to get a sense of what the child is produc
ing accurately, the positions in which that oc
cur, as well as the word position in which er
rors occur, syllable and word structure chan
ges. And that might involve looking at the C
V structures of syllables and of words to see
how the child might be altering the adult for
m to come up with some variation.
And ultimately, this is really our window int
o the types of patterns a child might use duri
ng naturalistic speech. So it's a really, really
important analysis and a key part of the asse
ssment process.
How to do this? Well, we first want to obtai
n a speech sample. The length of the sample,
we mentioned earlier-- 100 words is ideal, b
ut 50 words could be OK-- again, if it is natu
ralistic and representative. And just to talk a
bout that for a moment, we could talk to the
parents.
In many settings, the parents might be obser
ving the evaluation. Hopefully they're not in
the room, but they're able to observe from an
observation suite. And we want to get a sen
se from them if this is how their child typica
lly speaks.
In terms of elicitation, I'll go through a few
different ways on the next slide of how to eli
cit a sample and some tips for thinking abou
t how to obtain natural productions for both
typicallydeveloping kids, children who are shy, or ch
ildren with limited verbal output.
Ultimately, we will see children who are cha
tty and who will give us everything we need
very easily. But there are other children who
won't. And rather than saying that we're goi
ng to rely on just the limited output that they
might give you, we might really want to try
to find ways to entice them to be comfortabl
e to speak.
So in terms of how to sample, there are three
ways that I like to talk about, and they're all
quite different. So wordless picture book-- a
book I use a lot is called Pancakes for Brea
kfast. What I like about this book is that I ca
Week 3 Page 7
ways that I like to talk about, and they're all
quite different. So wordless picture book-- a
book I use a lot is called Pancakes for Brea
kfast. What I like about this book is that I ca
n read the book to the child. It's wordless, so
I'm describing the scenario where this child
is trying to make pancakes and runs out of it
ems to buy.
And then the child has the chance to repeat i
t back to me. What I like about this activity i
s that I have control of
the context. I know what the child is intendi
ng to say. It makes it a lot easier to transcrib
e.
Another nice way is a narrative. Tell me abo
ut your favorite movie. This sampling techni
que that's less structured can sometimes run
you into trouble if the child
is very unintelligible. And so it could be gre
at if you could say, oh, you saw the latest Sp
ongeBob movie. Tell me about it.
If that's going to happen, you want to be sur
e that you understand that movie and that yo
u can follow, and that you understand the co
ntext. Because then it might be difficult to tr
anscribe. And then lastly, we often just use s
tructured play. The play is structured becaus
e we've set up a scenario. And your intent is
so that the items included in that play help y
ou target a range of speech zones.
Why multiple speaking contexts? Well, wha
t's important is that-- and this goes back to w
hy single words and connect the speech. Wh
y do we need both? We need both because t
he single word test can really help us get-- w
e know the context. There are single words.
We can quickly sample a variety of phonem
es in different
word positions and compare to development
al norms.
But connected speech is so important becaus
e that sample should be representative. It's m
ore of what the child-- it's more-- it will illus
trate to us what the child does in their daytoday speech. Because it's their connected spe
ech, there are greater coarticulatory demand
s, and it's more linguistically taxing.
Imagine, from a cognitive linguistic perspect
ive, the child who is asked to repeat and na
me pictures versus the child who might be a
sked to tell you a story. So those added lingu
istic demands make it less possible for them
to focus on how they're producing speech. A
nd that's good. You really want to see their r
ange of production.
What else can we look at? Well, in some cas
es, I also like to look at syllable sequencing.
For instance, in children with apraxia of spe
ech, where I want to look at those articulator
y transitions which are so hard for those chil
dren, I will give them a series of sequences
where they might have to repeat productions
.
And it could be something nonword sequences like /puh-muh-duh/ or /aheumWeek 3 Page 8
So just to give you an idea of what a relatio
nal analysis might look like-- and this is tak
en from the sample you saw earlier from th
e independent analysis. What we're seeing h
ere is how I took each form. We have the in
tended form dog and the child's spoken for
m, da. And the comparison simply illustrate
s that the G was deleted in the syllable final
word final position.
And so you
will do this for every single production that
the child has. The next word in error is coat
, which the child produces as "goge." And y
ou can see here how the k is substituted wit
h a G in two
word positions. Well, sorry-- in one word p
osition. There's an error in a different error.
That K becomes G in syllable initial word i
nitial. T becomes G in syllable final word fi
nal. So we're looking right here, and we're g
oing to identify each error pattern and the w
ord position in which it occurs.
Moving further down, to becomes do, as we
can see right here. And then if we even mo
ve to the bottom, we can see that happy bec
omes "dabby." Something a little bit differe
nt over here, where H became D in the sylla
where they might have to repeat productions
.
And it could be something nonword sequences like /puh-muh-duh/ or /aheumwoo/, and ranging to sequences that are real
words. And the point is I'm really looking to
see where there might be a level of breakdo
wn in these syllable sequencing activities.
As we examine error type we're also look
ing for error consistency. And error consi
stency can mean a few different things, a
nd we'll go through each, several variatio
ns of this term. So consistent errors-- an e
rror could be consistent if it occurs in all
word positions. So, for instance, if S beco
mes T in sun or glasses and glass, then w
e would consider that to be a consistent e
rror if it occurred across all word position
s.
Now an error can be consistent if it occur
s in all speaking contexts, and so in word
s, phrases, sentences, and connected spee
ch. So going back to that example, if S be
came T not just across all word positions
but also in words and phrases and sentenc
es, we would consider that to be somewh
at consistent as well.
But children can also display a range of i
Week 3 Page 9
Moving further down, to becomes do, as we
can see right here. And then if we even mo
ve to the bottom, we can see that happy bec
omes "dabby." Something a little bit differe
nt over here, where H became D in the sylla
ble initial word initial position. And P beca
me B. Whoops. We'll just change that right
here. P became B in the syllable initial wor
d within. So we'll just cross that out.
And so the point here is to compare this to t
he independent analysis that we performed,
where in the independent, we were solely fo
cused on the output. And that's important.
Now we're taking it to a different level, and
we're actually going to dissect the error pat
tern. And we did that here in terms of segm
ents, in terms of sounds.
Next up, we're going to do the same, but in
terms of syllable and word structure. So yo
u're all familiar with how to use the letter C
and V to identify the syllable or word struc
ture. And so dog is a CVC structure. And it'
s altered here to be a CV, because the final
consonant is deleted.
Now, interestingly, let's look at the next wo
rd. The next word is a CV CV-- daddy. But
let's look at what it's changed to. It's also ch
anged to a CV CV. And so that's why you d
on't see it written out here, because I didn't
do that for the words that were accurate. Bu
t it's really great practice for you to go throu
gh this and do this on your own if this is an
area that you want to improve your work on
further.
Going back to some of the errors, if we go t
o book, book
is also CVC which becomes a CV. And sun
is another CVC that's simplified to a CV. S
o the point here is that I can have a takehome message right here, which is that the
child is-- one way the child
is simplifying syllable structure is by deleti
ng the final consonants of words.
But what I also can note is that in these-- let
's see-- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10-- 11 words, there are only four in which
the word structure was changed. So that's in
teresting in that the remaining were accurat
e, and we could actually come up with a per
centage that we could report.
So this is a great way for you to think about
how we're going to collect that speech sam
ple, perform
a relational analysis, and have both a segme
ntal and a syllable word structure analysis t
hat we can do from it.
but also in words and phrases and sentenc
es, we would consider that to be somewh
at consistent as well.
But children can also display a range of i
nconsistent errors, and so inconsistent err
ors can vary by word position. So the sa
me speaker might produce sun as un and
glass as glat. So the initial S
was deleted and the final S became
a T. And so even though both are errors, t
hey're different types of errors.
We can also see that errors can vary by s
peaking context. And that means that the
y may be accurate in words, but not in se
ntences of connected speech. So S could
be accurate in sun but not accurate in the
sun is yellow, or when the child's talking
about a time he saw the sun on his vacati
on.
And then the other thing to consider is th
at sometimes the standard production ma
y be achieved in a variety of contexts. So
maybe the speaker produces sun as sun o
ne time and tun another time. And so som
etimes standard production is achieved an
d other times it is not.
When we think of consistency of word, w
hich is an important way to think about er
ror consistency, this is a situation where a
child will produce one word in a variety
of different forms. So cat-- and let's say c
at were produced six times by a child-- it
could be possible that the first production
were cat and it were accurate, but the ne
xt production is an error and that's tat. In
the next production, the final consonant
may be dropped resulting in ta.
The fourth production is gat. The fifth pr
oduction, the initial consonant is dropped
resulting in at. And the final production
happens to be accurate again.
And so we can look at these types of patt
erns and come up with, really, percentage
s for how consistent sound patterns are.
And in this case, the important thing to hi
ghlight is that out of six forms, out of six
productions, there are two accurate, four i
naccurate, and those four inaccurate take
completely different shapes. And that's hi
ghly atypical.
Week 3 Page 10
So what we want to start doing is putting thi
s information that we're learning into a mor
e real life context through a case study. And
so if we're looking at a child who's 3.9, chil
d who's almost 4, and has reduced intelligibi
lity, parents are concerned because they don
't know how
to understand the child. With that informati
on, let's think about some concerns regardin
g this child's history and some additional qu
estions you would ask up to this point.
Well, we would certainly want some greater
history about if anything has been done up
to this point. The child's almost four. Have t
hey had any intervention at all? And going
back to our interview, you'd want a complet
e birth, medical, developmental, and educati
onal history to understand where the child h
as-- what's happened up until this point that
might be contributing to the problem.
But when we think about planning our eval
uation, think of all the components we've ev
aluated and thought about so far. Administe
ring a standardized test-- perhaps that would
be the GFTA. Collecting a speech sample,
which we know isn't a critical part of our as
sessment, making sure a complete oral moto
r exam was done. And perhaps we've chose
n the VMPAC, the Verbal Motor Productio
n Assessment for Children to do that. I'm go
ing to analyze my results and come up with
a speech intelligibility rating. Think back to
the percent consonant correct that we learne
d about earlier.
But what other information would you want
? We would certainly need to complete an i
ndependent analysis based on the GoldmanFristoe, right, and a relational analysis tied t
o the speech sample to begin to understand
how the phonetic inventory shaped what ph
onemes are productive, marginal, and absen
t. And then in terms of the relational analysi
s, the error patterns. And so this would set u
s up for what we're moving toward forward.
And the analyzes we've-- the analyzes we're
going to talk about will involve linear analy
sis, like phonological processes, and nonlin
ear analysis where we actually dive into the
We've discussed the concept of coarticulatio
n. And movement transitions are a compone
nt of coarticulation, in that sounds are influe
nced by the sounds around them. And so mo
vement from one phoneme into the next, into
the next, or movement prior to a phoneme,
will influence and shape that phoneme.
So when
we think about movement transitions, or des
cribing the transition in a child's speech, wha
t should we look for? We want to look at sou
nd sequencing. So if we are assessing this, I
might ask a child to repeat after me and repe
at a series of sound sequences, like "ah, oo."
In doing so, I'm watching the child. I'm looki
ng at the degree of movement, of oral openin
g. In the case of "ah," it's pretty much openin
g in the vertical plane. And then movement t
hat would be associated with an accurate "oo
," that does involve some horizontal moveme
nt.
I could also look at syllable sequencing. So n
on-words-- for instance, "cut-uh" or "puh-tacah," compared to real words, "pea
tea key" or "buttercup," which is often used i
n diadococinesis tasks. And what we're reall
y looking for is whether there seems to be s
mooth movement from one phoneme into an
other phoneme.
Think of the word "high," how that age is ver
y-- is a fricative, a very simple fricative, and
followed by a diphthong. And that diphthong
is the sequence of two distinct-- two differe
nt phonemes, with such a smooth transition t
hat it sounds like one phoneme. "Hiii-eee."
And that's a great example for you to think a
bout, in terms of what a movement transition
entails. Because there needs to be coordinati
on-- "ha" into that first vowel, and then reall
y beautiful movement from the onset of the d
iphthong into the offset-- or of the onglide of
the diphthong into the offglide of that diphth
ong. And so children who have breakdowns i
n these sequencing tasks and don't perform t
hem well are likely to have similar breakdow
ns in connected speech.
So how can we study this? Well, we need to
challenge the client. If we-- and now we're ta
lking about children who might have many e
rrors, who might not have a lot of verbal out
put. So if we rely on only what they give us,
we may not be able to capture-- they may be
producing just a few phonemes, CV combina
tions. But if we challenge them through the p
roduction of these sequences, we might be a
ble to dive into that more deeply.
So for example, we can alter place of articula
tion, such as having them produce "puh-tacah." Alter manner of articulation in "pahmah," and the change in manner is from a no
nnasal P to a nasalized M. Or we could alter v
owel characteristics like "ah-ooWeek 3 Page 11
And the analyzes we've-- the analyzes we're
going to talk about will involve linear analy
sis, like phonological processes, and nonlin
ear analysis where we actually dive into the
distinctive features that children are using.
And so we're almost at a point-- we're gettin
g there-- when we're ready to dive into these
two differing analyzes in greater depth.
mah," and the change in manner is from a no
nnasal P to a nasalized M. Or we could alter v
owel characteristics like "ah-ooee," which touch upon different vowels made
in different parts of the oral cavity.
And so there are useful tools, such as the V
MPAC or the syllable repetition task, that ca
n guide us to explore these movement transit
ions further in children.
Phrasal stress, or sentential s
tress, is the stress that's prod
uced across a phrase or acros
s a sentence. And so when w
e're trying to emphasize som
ething, a part of a word, to m
ake a point, we do that by pl
acing emphasis on a particul
ar word.
Now, from an acoustic stand
point, we might increase the
duration, the intensity, or the
frequency of a syllable or of
a word in order to do that. A
nd that seems to be problema
tic in some children with spe
ech sound disorders.
Week 3 Page 12
Prosody is a suprasegmental aspect of
speech. And it contributes to speech
sounding natural. A number of childr
en with speech
sound disorders have difficulty with p
rosody, or some prosodic deficit, that
will contribute and impact the natural
ness of their speech.
So this can play out in terms of phras
al stress. So let's think about what phr
asal stress
is first. Phrasal stress, or sentential str
ess, is the stress that's produced acros
s a phrase or across a sentence. And s
o when we're trying to emphasize so
mething, a part of a word, to make a
point, we do that by placing emphasis
on a particular word.
Now, from an acoustic standpoint, we
might increase the duration, the inten
sity, or the frequency of a syllable or
of a word in order to do that. And tha
t seems to be problematic in some chi
ldren with speech sound disorders. So
for example, "I am going to the store
," is a phrase in which I emphasize th
e first word by altering my duration a
nd/or frequency and intensity. But if I
were saying, "I'm going to the STOR
E," I simply place emphasis on a diff
erent structure, on a different word, t
o have different meaning.
And so you can see from those exam
ples that where I chose to place emph
asis has an impact on how that phrase
is going to be understood. And it can
also have an impact on speech intelli
gibility. And so individuals might pro
duce inaccurate stress or simply prod
uce equal stress across phrases, whic
h then ends up sounding robot-like.
Similarly, speakers can have difficult
y with lexical stress.
This simply is word stress. And so an
y by bisyllabic, or any word that's tw
o or more syllables, can have a stress
pattern. And that typically is either tr
ochaic, meaning strongweak, emphasis placed on the first syl
lable, or iambic, weakstrong, emphasis placed on the secon
d syllable. And then when words are
multisyllabic, or longer than two syll
ables, they can have more than one le
vel of stress, primary and secondary s
tress.
In any event, when children produce
stress errors, there could be inaccurat
e stress, such as producing a word lik
e "HAP-py," which is strongweak, like "hap-PY," which is weakstrong. Or equal stress, like "ha, ppy."
So similar to phrasal stress, when chil
e "HAP-py," which is strongweak, like "hap-PY," which is weakstrong. Or equal stress, like "ha, ppy."
So similar to phrasal stress, when chil
dren use equal stress, they do tend to
sound robotlike. We can often see situations wher
e children just segregate their syllable
s. And so there isn't a nice, natural flo
w from one syllable to the other, that
there's just increased space between s
tress, which causes the impression of
segregation.
Let's now discuss phonotactics, or the rules
that govern how sounds can be combined in
the language. We combine these sounds to
form syllables, and those rules can differ de
pending on the position of the sound within
a word. So it's interesting to-- especially for
those of you who are exposed to different l
anguages, who are proficient or have some
proficiency in different languages-- to think
about the phonotactic rules in English, alon
g with phonotactic rules in the other langua
ges that
you speak. So these rules can dictate how s
ounds are combined and sequenced in a syll
able, and as you would expect, they're not t
he same across different languages.
So, for instance, look at where certain soun
ds can appear. And these are just examples,
but the sound P can occur in the beginning
of a word, middle of a word, and the end of
a word in English. But H, while we see H o
rthographically in different word positions,
phonetically it can occur in the initial and m
edial positions of words, but not at the ends
of words. And then ng, "ng," can occur in the final and medial po
sition of words. But in English, not in the in
itial position. So that's an example of the ph
onotactic rules that govern where these sou
nds appear.
But these rules can also govern how sounds
are combined. So T and R, in English, can
be combined in the initial position to create
words like train and truck. K and L can be c
ombined in the initial position to create wor
ds like clown or clap. B and G cannot be co
Week 3 Page 13
be combined in the initial position to create
words like train and truck. K and L can be c
ombined in the initial position to create wor
ds like clown or clap. B and G cannot be co
mbined to initiate or terminate words, but R
and a
nasal can be combined in the final word pos
ition to create a word like arm or born. And
so we can see how, clearly, not all sounds c
an be combined in all places.
Also interesting are the number of consona
nts that can be combined in the initial or fin
al word position. So we can see in English t
wo, three, four consonant combinations. Tw
o consonant combinations are commonly se
en, and they are permissible. Three consona
nt combinations are also permissible, as in
S-T-R straight or K-ST at the end of a word. And a four consona
nt combination can also be permissible, alth
ough we would see this more so in the final
position, like as in the word glimpsed.
So these examples illustrate how the rules a
re specific to a given language, but that thes
e phonotactic rules are rules that individuals
don't always need to be explicitly taught w
hen they're learning a language. And so it's
interesting to think about these rules in relat
ion to children developing phonology when
there are some phonological issues occurri
ng.
Week 3 Page 14
So a component of how sounds are str
ung together involves how they are co
mbined to form syllables and to form
words. Consonant and vowel combina
tions can-- thinking about how conso
nant and vowels
are combined can lead us to consider
simple versus complex syllable shape
s, open versus closed syllables, and co
mplex consonant combinations. So ac
ross development children need to mo
ve from a place where they're produci
ng sort of simple, easy combos to mu
ch more complex combinations that w
e see in longer, complicated words.
Syllable and structure patterns-- the b
asics. If we look at the words that are
shown here, what we're seeing is that- first, importantly, we always need to
transcribe the words into IPA before
we're thinking about the adult form.
And so if we look at the word basebal
l, there is a combination. It's a compo
und word that's a combination of two
CVC syllables. And that's shown here
. The period that's inserted indicates t
hat there's a syllable boundary.
Soccer is the result of two CV syllabl
es combined. Lacrosse is interesting b
ecause it is also two syllables but thos
e syllables different structure a bit. W
e've got the "la" "crosse" as the secon
d component. And then hockey, whic
h is another CV syllable. So you can s
ee through these different words how
the structure can change.
Now let's describe syllable structure p
atterns that we might see in a child pr
oducing speech sound errors. So in pa
ge, the word is
a CVC, but it's reduced to a CV as the
final consonant is deleted. Lamp is a
CVCC. That's also reduced to a CV.
Great is a CCVC that is reduced to a
CV. Sandy is a CVC.CV that's reduce
d to a CV.CV. And then lastly, shipwr
eck is a more complicated structure.
But interestingly, it's also reduced to a
CV.CV.
So our objective when we're looking t
hrough a child's speech-- and let's ass
ume that these all come from the sam
e child-- is that we want to understand
the pattern that might be going on her
e. We're constantly looking for patter
ns. And so think for a moment, before
you look at the next slide, what that p
attern might be. And of course, I'll lay
that out for you right now.
If we were doing a syllable structure a
nalysis, what I would do is look at ho
w many syllables were produced. And
we see that there were seven syllable
s and 100% of the syllables that were
produced were
a CV structure. And I simply just add
Week 3 Page 15
w many syllables were produced. And
we see that there were seven syllable
s and 100% of the syllables that were
produced were
a CV structure. And I simply just add
ed these syllables that are up here.
So seven syllables were produced and
all seven were CV. And this illustrate
s that all the syllables that are produce
d are open syllables. And what's clear
ly missing are closed syllables or syll
ables with consonant clusters. That's
what would make these productions
more sophisticated.
So 100% of the child's productions w
ere 100%. 100% of the child's product
ions were CV structures. And that's n
ot considering what the targets should
have been. This is simply looking at
output.
Now if we look at word pattern-- the
word structure-- we could see that the
re were five words produced and thre
e were CV structure and two were CV
.CV combinations. And so if we do th
e math, we look and see that three out
of five, or 60%, of the words are a C
V structure. And 40% of the words ar
e CV.CV structure. This is simply a w
ay of quantifying the patterns that a c
hild is preferring to use.
We can also look at-- let's think about
what's commonly seen in early speec
h and that is that children have difficu
lty producing clusters, and certainly p
roducing clusters that increase in leng
th, as well as difficulty producing clos
ed syllables. And so if we look at the
word lamp becoming "wa," what we
notice is that the CV is gone. So that's
an example of eliminating the cluster
.
But if we look at splat, we see that so
me aspect was maintained. But the res
ult is a twosyllable consonant combination. And
so both are examples of how producin
g clusters accurately are problematic f
or the speaker. And in terms of closed
syllables, one of the most common th
ings we see is that children prefer an
open syllable shape, which is motoric
ally easier to produce and early devel
oping.
Lastly we focus on word length-- sing
le syllable versus multisyllabic produ
ctions. If you think of young children'
s early words, they're all single. They
tend to be predominantly single syllab
le productions. Then we might see bis
yllabic combinations, and so on and s
o forth.
Kids with speech sound disorders will
commonly simplify multisyllabic wo
rds. And we can see that here in the e
xample of pajamas becoming jamas a
nd how that syllable structure is reduc
ed, shown in red, and also how teleph
Week 3 Page 16
commonly simplify multisyllabic wo
rds. And we can see that here in the e
xample of pajamas becoming jamas a
nd how that syllable structure is reduc
ed, shown in red, and also how teleph
one might be simply reduced to phone
, where we're only left with a CVC co
mbination.
So these changes can take so many di
fferent forms. But the important and k
ey point is to identify the child's prefe
rences, and then illustrate the types of
simplification patterns that they're usi
ng.
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Printout
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
5:19 PM
Breakout Room Week 3
The model and replica chart reveals the following four things about a child’s speech:
The relational analysis compares a child’s form to the target. It is comprised of an analysis that
examines the processes by which an adult form becomes the child’s form. True/False
If you are concerned with what sounds a child produces (what phonemes are in the child’s
phonetic inventory) you would use _________ INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS
What is meant by the term movement transitions?
movement transitions are a component of coarticulation, in that sounds are influen
ced by the sounds around them. And so movement from one phoneme into the next
, into the next, or movement prior to a phoneme, will influence and shape that phon
eme.
Week 3 Page 19
What are the different ways error inconsistency is used?
And so we can look at these types of patterns and come up with, really, percentage
s for how consistent sound patterns are. And in this case, the important thing to hig
hlight is that out of six forms, out of six productions, there are two accurate, four in
accurate, and those four inaccurate take completely different shapes. And that's hig
hly atypical.
What is the difference between an independent analysis and a relational analysis?
An independent analysis:
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An independent analysis:
• Examine all sounds produced by child
• Does not consider adult target
• Examines place, manner and voicing characteristics of productive, marginal and absent
•
•
•
•
•
phonemes
Word position analysis
Vowel Analysis
Syllable/word structure analysis
Compares to developmental norms
Tally the number of times each phoneme was produced in each word position
– Productive: phonemes produced three or more times
– Marginal: phonemes produced one or two times
– Absent: phonemes not produced
A relational analysis:
• Compare child’s productions to adult form
• Obtain information from a connected speech sample
– Rationale for using connected speech? Most naturalistic speech setting
• Type of information that can be obtained?
– Are fricatives produced as stops?
– Are liquids produced as glides?
– Consistency of pattern
• Relational analysis allows for the study of:
– Phonological processes
– Sound errors including substitutions, omissions, deletions, and additions
– Word-position preferences
– Syllable- and word-structure changes
– Provides a window into the speech error patterns seen during naturalistic speech
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Sunday, March 7, 2021
7:17 PM
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Printout
Sunday, January 10, 2021
6:11 PM
Phonological processes are one way of exa
mining speech errors. We use the term phon
ological processes. We can also use the term
phonological patterns to describe these syst
ematic errors.
So we think of this notion of phonological p
atterns, we're questioning whether similar p
honemes are produced in a similar way, whi
ch is essentially it. So for instance, if we thi
nk about velars, k and
g and ng, are all velars produced in the same
way where they're brought forward in the or
al cavity? Well, that's a place change.
Are all fricatives stopped? That's a manner c
hange. And what I mean by fricative stoppin
g is a sound like f becoming a
p. Or an s becoming a t, where is that fricati
on is lost. And are all voiceless plosives pro
duced as voiced? This is a voicing issue. So
we're going to spend a lot of time in this cou
rse talking and analyzing phonological patte
rns. But as
you do so, think about how each pattern rela
tes to a place, manner, or
voicing change. And it will help refine your
understanding of place, manner, or voicing.
So three phonological models that are used t
o classify phonological patterns are processe
s, rules, and constraints. And we're going to
start off talking about processes, and rules a
nd constraints will be discussed in several w
eeks.
The underlying notion here though is natural
phonology theory. So, and it's important to t
hink about this. That these ideas that we use
to talk about speech production and speech
deviations from the standard form are suppo
rted by theory. And so in terms of the natura
l phonology theory, there's the notion that p
honological development involves this innat
e set of processes that act to simplify the adu
lt word. And that simply means that children
are born with this ability to make words sim
ple in order for them to produce it, and there
fore systematically alter words.
So this process involves not just sort of a me
ntal constraint, but also motor constraint on
the child's system. And that over time, the c
hild will gradually learn to more and more a
pproximate sounds of the community just by
attempt after attempt after attempt, and revi
sing these processes. And therefore the notio
n is that children's phonological representati
ons are at least as deep as the adult. And that
simply means that the way children are repr
esenting these sounds, they're representing t
he sounds in the way that the adults would b
e. And so that we believe they're attempting
to produce the adult form.
Processes or phonological patterns are some
systematic deviation from the standard for
m. It means that it's not a problem or an erro
r that just shows up once or twice. There has
to be more regularity. And we use this fram
ework to describe how children simplify the
adult form. And what it helps us to do is to l
ook for patterns in the speech errors. And by
doing so, that gives us an advantage in term
s of not just working on improving one soun
d at a time, but really improving on focusing
on the process so that a larger group of sou
nds is improved with treatment.
Of course, the more processes a child uses, t
Week 4 Page 1
s of not just working on improving one soun
d at a time, but really improving on focusing
on the process so that a larger group of sou
nds is improved with treatment.
Of course, the more processes a child uses, t
he more their intelligibility is going to be re
duced. The more and the range of processes
children use will impact, will make them mo
re difficult to understand by others. And cert
ainly, there are typical and atypical processe
s. The typical processes are those that we se
e more commonly in young children. And at
ypical processes are those we do not. And so
children who use more atypical processes ar
e also less likely to be well understood by ot
hers.
So one interesting, interesting thing to think
about is whether a phonological process refl
ects the child's perception or just their produ
ction capabilities. So is it that the child can
perceive sounds accurately, but simply can't
produce them? Or is it only, is this an issue t
hat affects perception and both production?
And so we kind of see both in children. Ther
e
are children who do have difficulty perceivi
ng contrast between sounds and also have di
fficulty producing those contrasts. And alter
natively, there
are children who seem to perceive these con
trasts OK, but can't seem to produce such co
ntrasts. And so you know, part of our assess
ment tries to answer these questions, to iden
tify which patterns might be more prominen
t in a child's output.
What we do know is that we have research t
hat has provided us with normative data that
shows that certain processes are more com
mon in the speech of typically developing c
hildren. And along with that, we know that s
ome general broad age ranges in which we s
hould begin to see these processes suppress.
We also know that there are processes that a
re typical and processes that are atypical and
that are not seen in development and that ra
ise a red flag if we see a child using them, s
uch as glottalization.
And then lastly, phonological processes can
operate in such a way that a single word can
be impacted by a variety of processes, not j
ust one process. So a child might use a phon
ological process of final consonant deletion
where they're dropping the ends of words. B
ut they also may use a process of cluster red
uction where they simplify clusters. And so
a word like stop that has both a cluster and a
final consonant could be produced as taw, t
hus illustrating that two processes were oper
ating on that word.
So our discussion of phonological processes
will be guided by this outline. We're going t
o talk about syllable structure processes first
, where a word, where we simplify the word
or the syllable structure somehow. And that
could be deleting a sound, or deleting a sylla
ble, or adding a sound. And think of this, we
'll get to it in more detail, but you know whe
n you write out the syllable structure in the
CV form, if the child's production changes f
rom what was intended, that's a syllable stru
cture change.
We also will cover substitution processes, w
here segments or sounds will changed, will
be changed to other segments or sounds. An
d then lastly, assimilation processes where o
ne segment will be changed to be more simil
ar to a surrounding segment. And that sprea
ding of features will occur when sounds are
influenced by surrounding sounds.
SYLLABLE
STRUCTURE
PROCESS
1. Syllable deletion (unstressed syllable)
2. Consonant deletion (initial or final)
3. Reduplication: partial or total repetition of syllable or word
4. Consonant cluster reduction/simplification: total vs. partial
5. Epenthesis: insert vowel (usually schwa) between two
consonants
SUBSTITUTION
PROCESS
1. Stopping
2. Fronting
3. Backing
4. Stridency deletion: delete or replace strident (f, v, s, z, sh,
Week 4 Page 2
ar to a surrounding segment. And that sprea
ding of features will occur when sounds are
influenced by surrounding sounds.
SUBSTITUTION
PROCESS
1. Stopping
2. Fronting
3. Backing
4. Stridency deletion: delete or replace strident (f, v, s, z, sh,
ch) (ALL affricates and fricatives EXCEPT “th”) with a
non-strident sound, closely associated with stopping
5. Deaffrication: substitute a fricative or a stop with an
affricate
6. Depalatalization: substitute alveolar fricative for a palatal
fricative
7. Gliding: replace liquids with glides
8. Vowelization/vocalization: syllabic liquids or nasals are
replaced with vowels *when child doesn’t delete other final
consonants, vowelization is NOT FCD.
ASSIMILATION
PROCESS
1. Degree of assimilation: total vs. partial=
total assimilation= a phoneme is completely repeated in a w
ord, in a place where it hadn't been repeat again. partial assi
milation=consonants are changed but they're not changed to
be identical, they're changed to be more similar than in the
adult form.
2. Direction of assimilation: progressive= sound that causes
change precedes affected sound and regressive= sound that
causes change follows affected sound.
3. Types of assimilation: Velar= alveolar consonant becomes
more like velar, labial= nonlabial replaced with labial in a
context containing labial, alveolar= nonalveolar sound
influenced by alveolar, nasal= nonnasal to nasal, manner
change but place may also be assimilated.
4. Prevocalic voicing= voiceless obstruent (fricative, affricate,
stop) becomes voiced when preceding a vowel within the
same syllable.
Syllable structure processes are processes th
at alter the syllable structure-- the CV struct
ure. One of the most common processes tha
t we see is syllable deletion, and this is usua
lly an unstressed syllable deletion, where th
e unstressed syllable-- in a word-- is deleted
. So of course, this could only apply to word
s that have more than one syllable. And the
examples here illustrate that.
So when you're working through this-- and
on your own-- don't forget to transcribe the
adult form. So in the word spaghetti that has
three syllables, one of those syllables is stre
ssed. And the child ends up producing "ghet
ti." Well, if we think of which syllable has t
he most stress, it's spa-ghetti, the middle syllable. The first syllable ha
s the least amount of stress. And that's the v
ulnerable one, the one that's reduced.
Banana. A common child form of banana is
"nana." Same idea, the first syllable
is dropped simply because it's unstressed. A
nd then microwave becomes "micwave." the point here is that this can happen
for a variety of different reasons. It could b
e that children simply can't string along a nu
mber of syllables together. It also could be t
hat the unstressed syllable is not perceptuall
y salient to the child. Whatever the reasonin
g, there can be this pattern where there's a r
eduction systematically. And it's most likely
going to affect the unstressed syllable.
We also can see consonant deletion. And us
ually, this occurs in the form of final conson
ant deletion. So final consonant deletion is t
he typical pattern, meaning we commonly s
ee it in typical development. And this differ
s from initial consonant deletion, where an i
nitial consonant is deleted, but that's an unu
sual atypical pattern to see in children. So b
ack to final consonant deletion quickly, it's
pretty well illustrated here. The final conson
ant is deleted in a word, child maintains the
other sounds.
While this is a typical process that we see in
young children, we should look to see it be
suppressed by three years of age. And of co
urse, initial consonant deletion is dropping
Week 4 Page 3
5. Postvocalic devoicing= involves devoicing of a voiced
obstruent when it occurs at the end of a syllable.
6. Coalescence= features from two adjacent sounds combine
to form one sound (total assimilation)
7. Contiguous (adjacent segments) vs. noncontinguous
(nonadjacent)
IDIOSYNCRATIC/
UNUSUAL
PATTERNS
1. Atypical cluster reduction: deletion of one consonant that is
usually retained
2. Initial consonant deletion
3. Medial consonant deletion: delete intervocalic consonant
4. Apicalization: labial replaced by apical (tongue tip)
consonant
5. Backing of stops
6. Backing of fricatives
7. Glottal replacement: substitution of glottal stop for a
consonant usually in medial/final position
8. Medical consonant substitution: replacement of intervocalic
consonants with one or more phoneme
9. Denasalization: nasal becomes nonnasal
10. Devoicing of stops: replace voiced stops with a voiceless
phoneme (usually stop) in word in initial position.
11. Fricatives replacing stops
12. Stops replacing glides
13. Metathesis: reversal of position of two sounds; sounds
may not be adjacent
14. Migration: movement of a sound from one position in a
word to another
other sounds.
While this is a typical process that we see in
young children, we should look to see it be
suppressed by three years of age. And of co
urse, initial consonant deletion is dropping
of that initial sound. Children-- especially y
oung children-- often reduplicate. And this i
s another process that will change the syllab
le structure. And reduplication is simply rep
eating part of a syllable or word, very com
mon in children's early words.
And so you might see a child walking aroun
d instead of water, saying "wahwah," "doggie," "dada," "wagon," "wahwah." And so taking elements of the word,
but reduplicating that. And it's a really fasci
nating process because it's as if children are
trying to use what they have and overuse it in order to match the syllable length o
f a word. This is also usually eliminated by
three, and again, viewed as a strategy for m
ay be producing multisyllabic words. I don't have a lot of sounds,
but I'm going to use what I can to produce l
ong words.
Changes in consonant clusters are also sylla
ble structure processes, because when we re
duce or eliminate clusters, we change the str
ucture of the word. And so in the example h
ere of snake becoming "naykay," the child is actually adding a syllable,
but in doing so, reduces that cluster and onl
y keeps part of the SN cluster at the end.
Children can also take longer clusters like a
n S-K-R in scream, and reduce that to an ST. And in this case, there's a substitution of
one member for the cluster, but also a reduc
tion. And then lastly, we have epenthesis, w
here there's an insertion of a sound. Usually,
that's the "schwa." And so the insertion of a
vowel between two consonants can often se
rve as a way to simplify a cluster, like spoo
n will become "sapun."
But it also could be added to the ends of wo
rds like "colora," and less commonly, inserti
on of a consonant like a TH in "stoap." Either way, the insertion of th
ese sounds seems to be a way that might aid
certain children in producing the word. An
d we look to see some of these patterns sup
press over time. And if not, that might be a
goal for remediation.
Week 4 Page 4
Substitution processes are a bit more str
aightforward, because this involves cha
nging one phoneme into a different pho
neme. But it can take many forms.
So very frequently we can see sound ch
anges and where a sound class is going
to replace another class of sounds, such
as in stopping or fronting a sound. And
let's look at those in more detail.
So stopping happens when we take a fri
cative or an affricate and we replace it
with a stop consonant. Remember that f
ricatives are continuous and stops are n
ot. And so if we're replacing this contin
uant phoneme, we're going to change th
e manner of production.
In this example, "soap" becomes "toup.
" Interestingly, S and T are made in the
same place of articulation. Voicing is th
e same, meaning they're both voiceless.
And the only thing that's changing is th
e manner, where instead of having cont
inuous airflow through a constriction, t
here is a complete constriction.
And so the fine definition of stopping c
an vary slightly in the literature, depend
ing on what you're reading. But the pre
mise is the same, that some thing that's
continuous is made non-continuous.
Fronting-- and back to stopping that it's
a manner change. Fronting involves a c
hange in place of articulation. So velar
fronting means that a velar is going to b
e replaced with a front sound. And usua
lly that's an alveolar, as in "cake" beco
ming "take." We can also see palatal fr
onting, where the palatal sound moves t
oward a frontal sound. Again that's ofte
n an alveolar. And in this case "shoe" w
ould become "su," also called depalatali
zation. The important thing to realize h
ere is that fronting is a change in-- is a
change in place primarily.
Backing is the reverse. And this is whe
n we take an anterior sound, replace it
with a back sound. And so "two" beco
ming "ku" or "do" becoming "gou," bot
h situations take lingual alveolar phone
mes and replace them with a lingual vel
ar phoneme.
And so we tend to see this happen with
different frequencies in typically develo
ping children. Typically developing chi
ldren are very likely to front sounds, m
ove them forward, and less likely to bac
k sounds or move them backward.
We can also see stridency deletion. An
d stridency deletion is closely associate
d with stopping. It's simply deleting or
replacing a strident sound with a nonstrident sound. And I tend to purely use
the term "stopping," except that striden
cy deletion really nicely captures what
happens when a strident sound is compl
etely deleted.
So in the example "soap" becoming "ou
Week 4 Page 5
Typically developing chil
dren are very likely to fro
nt sounds, move them for
ward, and less likely to ba
ck sounds or move them b
ackward.
the term "stopping," except that striden
cy deletion really nicely captures what
happens when a strident sound is compl
etely deleted.
So in the example "soap" becoming "ou
p," yes, one might say that's initial cons
onant deletion. But if we're overlooking
the fact that a strident sound is deleted,
we might be missing an important piec
e of information.
Deaffrication, substituting a fricative fo
r an affricate. Remember that that affric
ate may be a stop-- is a stop and a fricat
ive produced together. And so if an affr
icate is purely replaced with a fricative,
we would consider that to be deaffricat
ion, as in "jeep" becoming "zip" or "che
ese" becoming "jiz." What's remaining
is purely one fricative.
And depalatalization, I mentioned this e
arlier as a form of fronting. But typicall
y what we do see is that palatal sound,
"sh" or "juh," replaced with a more for
ward sound. And we look to see this pa
ttern suppressed by about four years of
age.
So the point here is that many of these
patterns will occur in typical children.
But what typical children also do is gra
dually eliminate the use of the process.
Gliding. Glides can be really challengin
g for kids. And so what we will see chil
dren do is replacing liquids with glides- or rather, both liquids and glides can b
e challenging to different types of child
ren. We tend to see children have a ver
y difficult time with production of R. A
nd so if R becomes W or if an L becom
es a "yuh" or a
W, those would be examples of gliding.
And these are challenging phonemes fo
r children. And Rs and Ls tend to be am
ong the later phonemes to be produced
accurately and consistently by children.
And then lastly vowelization or vocaliz
ation. We sometimes see syllabic liquid
s, like that "ul" in "bottle," or nasals rep
laced with vowels. And what we someti
mes do see is that in doing so, children
will prolong that vowel. So the exampl
e shown here is "bottle" becoming "bar
o," where the colon is a diacritic used t
o indicate that the vowel is prolonged, "
paper" becoming "peypo." Now, that pa
rticular pattern where the vocalic R
is affected is called derhoticization.
So what's important to note is that whe
n children use these patterns, we do not
consider this to be final consonant dele
tion. The syllabic liquid and vocality ar
e-- have very different articulation at th
e ends of words. And so we don't consi
der that to be final consonant deletion,
and that's a key point.
Typically developing childr
en are very likely to front s
ounds, move them forward,
and less likely to back soun
ds or move them backward.
If everything is stopped, it’s stopping
Most of the time, stridency deletion is
a form of stopping
So in the example "soap" becoming "
oup," yes, one might say that's initial
consonant deletion. But if we're overl
ooking the fact that a strident sound i
s deleted, we might be missing an im
portant piece of information.
If an affricate is purely repl
aced with a fricative, we wo
uld consider that to be deaff
rication, as in "jeep" becom
ing "zip" or "cheese" becom
ing "jiz." What's remaining
is purely one fricative.
palatal sound, "sh"
or "juh," replaced
with a more forwar
d sound.
Week 4 Page 6
with a more forwar
d sound.
Glides can be really challenging for kid
s. And so what we will see children do i
s replacing liquids with glides-- or rathe
r, both liquids and glides can be challen
ging to different types of children. We t
end to see children have a very difficult
time with production of R. And so if R
becomes W or if an L becomes a "yuh"
or a
W, those would be examples of gliding.
And these are challenging phonemes fo
r children. And Rs and Ls tend to be am
ong the later phonemes to be produced
accurately and consistently by children
vowelization or vocalization. We s
ometimes see syllabic liquids, like t
hat "ul" in "bottle," or nasals replac
ed with vowels. And what we some
times do see is that in doing so, chil
dren will prolong that vowel. So th
e example shown here is "bottle" b
ecoming "baro," where the colon is
a diacritic used to indicate that the
vowel is prolonged, "paper" becom
ing "peypo."
Now, that particular pattern where t
he vocalic R
is affected is called derhoticization.
So what's important to note is that
when children use these patterns, w
e do not consider this to be final co
nsonant deletion. The syllabic liqui
d and vocality are-- have very diffe
rent articulation at the ends of word
s. And so we don't consider that to
be final consonant deletion, and tha
t's a key point.
Assimilation takes precedence over substitution processes
So the notion that sounds are influenced by
one another underlies the concept of an assi
milation process where there's actually feat
ure spreading between sounds. And so one
sound will be changed to be more similar to
a surrounding phoneme, and this can happe
n in several different ways. We can have dif
ferent degrees of assimilation, different assi
milation happening in different directions, b
ecause it could happen-- sounds could be i
mpacted by what comes before and they ca
n also impact what comes later. And a varie
ty of different types of assimilation, which
we'll go through in detail.
So first, let's talk about the degree of assimi
lation. Assimilation can occur in a total or
a partial way. And when total assimilation o
ccurs, a phoneme is completely repeated in
Week 4 Page 7
If two phonemes become more similar, most likely
assimilation
Generally place change
we'll go through in detail.
So first, let's talk about the degree of assimi
lation. Assimilation can occur in a total or
a partial way. And when total assimilation o
ccurs, a phoneme is completely repeated in
a word, in a place where it hadn't been repe
at again. And so in bed becoming beb, the f
inal d is replaced with a b. Well that b came
from the initial b. In partial assimilation, co
nsonants are changed but they're not change
d to be identical, they're changed to be mor
e similar than in the adult form.
And so in gun, the g becomes a d. Well, wh
ere did that d come from? And that's interes
ting. The d is influenced by the place of arti
culation of the n, and is a lingual
alveolar phoneme, but the speaker wanted t
o hold onto something from the original for
m. And so the manner, the plosive manner
of the g is held onto, along with the voicing
. And the place of articulation from n is spr
ead and so the only lingual alveolar voice pl
osive is d.
Similarly, thank can become gank, where th
e-- and of course, it's important to transcrib
e these to understand where the velar came
from. It came from the ng at the end of the
word spreading to the beginning of the wor
d. Now, direction of assimilation. Assimilat
ion can be progressive or regressive. Progre
ssive simply means that the sound change is
going to precede the affected sound. And if
you look here in coat becoming coke, k aff
ected the t and we ended up with a k at the
end of the word.
In regressive assimilation, the assimilation
happens backwards. And so the final k is go
ing to influence the prior sound, and that ini
tial t becomes a k. It's really fascinating, be
cause it reminds us of how our brains are th
inking about what's about to come, and wha
t also came before.
Now, there are several types of assimilation
that we'll go through, velar, labial, alveolar
, and nasal, and each has a different definiti
on along with different ways of presenting.
Velar assimilation is when a consonant is c
hanged to become more like a velar. And m
any times, that's an alveolar sound. So you
can see here how the alveolar t becomes k.
Where did that come from? It came from th
e last sound. And so take becomes cake.
Similarly, and just to think back to what we
learned before, this is an example of regres
sive assimilation. Another example of regre
ssive assimilation is in dog becoming gog, a
nd in this case, again, the g completely take
s over and the d is changed to a d. The d is
changed to a g rather. Labial assimilation.
A sound that is not made at the lips is repla
ced with a sound that is made at the lips. Us
ually, this involves an alveolar becoming a l
abial sound as in the example here where k
nife becomes mife.
Well, what actually happened? In knife bec
omes mife, the child alters the n. The nasal
component of the n is held onto, but the labi
al from the f affects that initial sound. So th
e labial feature
is spread, and n turns to a labial nasal phone
me, and the only nasal labial phoneme we h
ave is m in English.
Bone becoming bome, again, the n is in tro
uble, it's going to be influenced by the b, la
bial feature spreads to the b, but the nasal fe
ature remains, thus resulting in m. So it's pr
etty systematic, and as you're working throu
gh these examples here and in the workboo
k material, as you're going along, also pract
ice whether these changes are progressive a
nd regressive for additional work in that.
Alveolar assimilation. This means that a so
Week 4 Page 8
Bed=beb= total assimilation
Gun=dun= partial assimilation
Thank=geink= partial assimilation
PROGRESSIVE= BACK
SOUND CHANGES
REGRESSIVE= FRONT
SOUND CHANGES
etty systematic, and as you're working throu
gh these examples here and in the workboo
k material, as you're going along, also pract
ice whether these changes are progressive a
nd regressive for additional work in that.
Alveolar assimilation. This means that a so
und that is not an alveolar is going to be ma
de like an alveolar, because there is influen
ce in the word. So in this case, top becomin
g tot, the alveolar feature of the t spreads to
the p resulting in taut. Soup becoming suit,
s is alveolar, the alveolar feature is spread,
and interestingly, the plosive component is
maintained. And so soup becomes suit illust
rates how place changes but manner does n
ot change.
We can also have nasal assimilation, which
is a manner change. In nasal assimilation, a
nonnasal sound is going to be made like a nasal
sound, and we saw some examples of this j
ust before. Gun becoming nun, n spreads to
the beginning of the word and replaces g. C
andy replaces nanny, and in this case, we ha
ve two things going on. We have the cluster
is reduced, got rid of the d. And the n is spr
ead to the beginning of the word and we en
d up with a word that has two n's in it.
Prevocalic voicing. So this is a little bit diff
erent, because this involves changing the el
ement of voicing, which we really haven't t
alked about to this point. So this means we'r
e changing a voiceless phoning into a voice
d one. Where does that voice-- where does t
hat voicing come from? Well, it's believed t
o come from the vowel this time. And so w
e know that all vowels are voiced. So if a v
oiceless sound precedes a vowel, it's possibl
e that that vowel may influence a consonant
and resulting in the cognate, where t beco
mes d and p becomes b.
A few other things, another voicing change
happens at the other end of the word, final c
onsonant devoicing, and this is simply that t
here are times when we see sounds at the en
ds of the words lose their voicing. And in th
is case, it's simply more positional. It's not t
hat that the voiceless element might be spre
ad from somewhere else in the word, it relat
es more to the position of the word. And so
here, the final d, because it's the final positi
on, loses its voicing in these situations.
A couple of other patterns that-- or one othe
r pattern that's not as common is coalescenc
e. And in coalescence, features from two ad
jacent sounds, so this can be features from t
he members of a cluster combined to form
one sound, and in this case, sweater become
s fetter. Where did that come from? Well, t
he fricative from s pairs with the labial fro
m w, and then you end up with a labial frica
tive or a labial dental fricative.
There's one more point related to assimilati
on, and that is whether adjacent or nonadjacent sounds are impacted. Most of the e
xamples that I gave you illustrate how noncontiguous or nonadjacent sounds are influenced. And this m
eans that features spread over vowels, like i
n knife becoming mife. Remember that the
f influence the n. But that jumped over a vo
wel, those are nonadjacent phonemes. But in the case of spoo
k becoming stook, the sounds combined in- there's influence of the two sounds that are
adjacent to one another, and that's a contin
uous assimilation process.
So as you're going through, you want to loo
k at the type of assimilation, the degree, and
as well as whether they're contiguous or no
n-contiguous.
Week 4 Page 9
Both regressive
Naif=maif=regressive
Boun=boum=progressive
Tap=tat= progressive
Sup=sut= progressive
Gun=nun= regressive
Kaendi= naeni= regressive
Gun becoming nun, n spreads t
o the beginning of the word an
d replaces g. Candy replaces na
nny, and in this case, we have t
wo things going on. We have t
he cluster is reduced, got rid of
the d. And the n is spread to the
beginning of the word and we
end up with a word that has tw
o n's in it.
So as you're going through, you want to loo
k at the type of assimilation, the degree, and
as well as whether they're contiguous or no
n-contiguous.
Kaendi= naeni= regressive
Tek=dek= regressive
Pen=ben= regressive
he cluster is reduced, got rid of
the d. And the n is spread to the
beginning of the word and we
end up with a word that has tw
o n's in it.
So this means we're changing a voic
eless phoning into a voiced one. Wh
ere does that voice-- where does that
voicing come from? Well, it's belie
ved to come from the vowel this tim
e. And so we know that all vowels a
re voiced. So if a voiceless sound pr
ecedes a vowel, it's possible that that
vowel may influence a consonant a
nd resulting in the cognate, where t
becomes d and p becomes b.
Meid= meit= regressive
Daed= daet= regressive
features from two adjacent sound
s, so this can be features from the
members of a cluster combined to
form one sound, and in this case,
sweater becomes fetter. Where di
d that come from? Well, the fricat
ive from s pairs with the labial fro
m w, and then you end up with a l
abial fricative or
a labial dental fricative.
Week 4 Page 10
There's one more point related to assimilati
on, and that is whether adjacent or nonadjacent sounds are impacted. Most of the e
xamples that I gave you illustrate how noncontiguous or nonadjacent sounds are influenced. And this m
eans that features spread over vowels, like i
n knife becoming mife. Remember that the
f influence the n. But that jumped over a vo
wel, those are nonadjacent phonemes. But in the case of spoo
k becoming stook, the sounds combined in- there's influence of the two sounds that are
adjacent to one another, and that's a contin
uous assimilation process.
So as you're going through, you want to loo
k at the type of assimilation, the degree, and
as well as whether they're contiguous or no
n-contiguous.
Week 4 Page 11
Some children display what we call idiosync
ratic or atypical patterns. And this simply me
ans that these are patterns that we don't tend t
o see in young typically developing speech.
Because recall that phonological processes, a
t least most of what we've covered so far, are
all very common in young typically develop
ing children. But we expect them to suppress
those patterns on their own without treatmen
t.
Idiosyncratic patterns are a little bit different.
And so by definition, they're patterns that ha
ve never been documented in normal speech
or that just simply occur very, very infrequen
tly in the typical population. How would we
characterize them?
Well, a few patterns. One is when a later dev
eloping sounds replaces an early developing
sound. If you've noticed so far, most of the ti
me when children are making substitution err
ors, an early sound or a later more complex s
ound is replaced with an early sound, like a "
ch" being replaced with a "ba." So when the
opposite happens, that raises a red flag.
What we also sometimes see or think about a
s uncommon is when children are adding to t
he adult form. So an overuse of patterns whe
re children are adding sounds is atypical. An
y time a child uses sounds that are not in you
r native language, assuming that they do not
speak a second language or have not been ex
posed to that second language-- that's a key p
oint.
And when a child uses a feature-- a supraseg
mental feature-- in a way that isn't seen in th
at language. So a child who is confusing the
way they're producing trochaic and iambic fo
rms. Remember? Strong, weak, and weak, str
ong. That is atypical.
Now, if we look at the two types side by side
, developmental processes-- at least from the
literature, we see that children are more likel
y, when they're using developmental process
es, to pronounce words in the same way, whe
ther they're imitating, naming a picture, or tal
king more casually. In contrast, there's more
inconsistency in the way that unusual proces
ses are used. And then developmental proces
ses have a history-- or at least are more docu
mented to-- change without intervention, me
ans children outgrow these patterns, where u
nusual processes are less likely to improve o
n their own.
So let's look at what some of those patterns a
re. We can have an atypical cluster reduction
. So it's not uncommon for a child to take a w
ord like "play" and to simplify it. But the co
mmon simplification would be "pay," not "la
y," because the more common-- the earlier d
eveloping sound will be held onto.
Initial consonant deletion. I mentioned this o
ne earlier. Yes, final consonant
deletion is very common. But initial consona
nt
deletion is not. And it's an idiosyncratic patte
rn
Children who drop sounds in the middle of w
ords in that intervocalic position is also atypi
cal. We more commonly see children form s
ubstitutions in these areas. Apicalization-- w
hen a labial is replaced with a tongue tip con
sonant.
I
mean, labials are very early developing soun
ds. Think of the babbling that children are pr
oducing. Lots of labials. And so when
Week 4 Page 12
sonant.
I
mean, labials are very early developing soun
ds. Think of the babbling that children are pr
oducing. Lots of labials. And so when
we start seeing sounds replace those labels, t
hat raises a red flag.
Backing of stops. Recall that fronting is reall
y common, moving sounds forward. But bac
king them is less common. And so this is a pl
ace change, where we're taking a front sound
and replacing it with a back sound.
Usually that back sound is a velar, as in "tou
" becoming "kou." And then backing of frica
tives. We more commonly see children bring
articulation forward and take an
affricate and turn it into a fricative.
It's much less common to have a child form a
palatal from an alveolar sound, right? So yes
, children can make affricates fricatives. But
when they're moving articulation backward-like an alveolar fricative becomes a palatal f
ricative, that's the atypical pattern.
Glottal replacement-- any
time we see children over use glottals or eve
n use them to some extent, that's atypical. W
e sometimes do see this in adults' speech. So
metimes words begin with a vowel, an adult
might glottalize that sound. But we don't exp
ect to see that in children. And so "bat" beco
ming "ba" where stopping is maintained but
brought so further back is extremely unusual.
And medial consonant substitutions-- well y
ou know, medial consonant deletion is unusu
al, but when
we start seeing really strange things happen t
o medial consonants, that might also raise a r
ed flag, as in taking a flap and replacing it wi
th a "yuh" sound. So some of these changes a
re a little more atypical than others.
A few more things-- denalasalization-- And
this is when we take a nasal consonant and th
at nasal consonant loses its nasal quality. An
d in this example-- "no" becoming "doe"-- th
ink of how n and
d are similar. They're both made in the same
place of articulation. Voicing is the same. So
the child maintained that but removed the na
sal quality. So that's a manner change.
And devoicing of stops-- so there are some si
tuations like at the ends of words when we d
o see children take the voices away from sto
ps. But when they're doing that at an initial w
ord position, that's atypical. So "daddy" beco
ming "taddy" is an atypical process.
A few other things-- fricatives replacing stop
s-- and this comes back to the notion that it's
unusual when early developing phonemes ar
e replaced with later developing phonemes.
And that's exactly what's happening here wh
en we're taking a stop and replacing it with a
fricative. And stops replacing glides, like "ye
llow" becoming "dellow," is another exampl
e of an atypical process.
So
we've got a few more to go. Metathesis and
migration-- and what starts to happen here is
some movement of sounds. In metathesis, th
ere's actually a reversal of positions of sound
s, so "most" would sound like "motes." And
migration is when there's movement from on
e position in a word to another. And in this c
ase, it might be like "soap" becoming "pous."
We would change that. This would look mor
e like this. All
right? "Soap" becoming "pous." So these are
examples of patterns that could be used some
what systematically but raise a red flag beca
use of their infrequent use in typical developi
ng children.
Week 4 Page 13
And in this example-- "no" becoming "
doe"-- think of how n and
d are similar. They're both made in the s
ame place of articulation. Voicing is the
same. So the child maintained that but
removed the nasal quality. So that's a m
anner change.
examples of patterns that could be used some
what systematically but raise a red flag beca
use of their infrequent use in typical developi
ng children.
stops replacing glides, like "yellow" bec
oming "dellow," is another example of a
n atypical process.
In metathesis, there's actually a reversal of p
ositions of sounds, so "most" would sound li
ke "motes." And migration is when there's m
ovement from one position in a word to anot
her. And in this case, it might be like "soap"
becoming "pous."
We would change that. This would look mor
e like this. All
right? "Soap" becoming "pous." So these are
examples of patterns that could be used some
what systematically but raise a red flag beca
use of their infrequent use in typical developi
ng children.
Week 4 Page 14
As we talk about vowel processes, I want y
ou to pull out the vowel quadrilateral becau
se it's such a great image and reference for
you. And, if you haven't-- if you don't have
this in your memory or have a visual image
of it to refer to-- it's great to bring that out n
ow so you can refer to it as we go through e
ach process. So, when we talk about feature
changes, this relates to how a vowel featur
e might change in a very slight way. So a v
owel might change in height and frontness
and roundness.
We can see this take a variety of different f
orms, though. So we have vowel backing w
hen a vowel is replaced with a more posteri
or vowel. And so, perhaps, a front vowel is
replaced with a back vowel. And look at thi
s over your vowel quadrilateral. Vowel low
ering will happen where a high vowel is rep
laced with a low vowel and, in this case, as
"ih" is replaced with an "eh." And so these r
eally subtle changes are interesting to think
about in children's speech, particularly thos
e children with a lot of vowel errors.
Now, many children use centralization. An
d that's simply taking a vowel and moving i
t to a more neutral central position. And so
we often feel like children who have difficu
lty using the range of space in their oral cav
ity might be likely to move to a central vow
el. We also do see vowel surrounding wher
e a vowel that is normally rounded is produ
ced without rounding.
Complexity changes, vowels are different fr
om diphthongs. And diphthongs have two v
owels. And there's an on glide and an
off glide. And so we occasionally see dipht
hongization where a
monothong is placed as a diphthong. And, i
n this case, we see that change in the vowel
"ah" becoming "i."
It's
so interesting, right, taking that first elemen
t but adding another component to it. What'
s more common is when
children reduce diphthongs. And so a single
vowel is replaced with a diphthong in the c
ase of "i" becoming "ah."
Now, we went through a whole range of ass
imilation patterns that affect consonants. W
ell, vowel harmony is the same concept but
in relation to vowels. And so a child might
use complete vowel harmony when one vo
wel is changed so that both vowels in the w
ord of the same. There might be an alteratio
n in tenseness so that a lax vowel becomes t
ense just like another vowel in the word.
We can also see harmony in terms of height
where vowels will be changed so that both
vowels are high or both vowels are low. Or
Week 4 Page 15
n in tenseness so that a lax vowel becomes t
ense just like another vowel in the word.
We can also see harmony in terms of height
where vowels will be changed so that both
vowels are high or both vowels are low. Or
maybe both vowels are centralized. So I thi
nk you get the point that it's really altering a
vowel to become more like another vowel i
n the word in relation to a variety of differe
nt factors.
Now, the other thing that can happen, whic
h is interesting, is when a
vowel's influenced by an adjacent or nearby
consonant. And so there are times when a v
owel might be altered because it's right near
a back vowel. Or a vowel might produce m
ore forward because it's near a front vowel.
And that's an interesting concept that we're
going to come back to when we get to treat
ment planning. And we'll begin thinking ab
out how to pair consonants and vowels toge
ther to put the child in the best position pos
sible for producing an accurate sound.
And then, lastly, we've got our rhotic vowel
s. Rhotic vowels can be very challenging fo
r some children. There are many children w
ho go through years of speech therapy to on
ly have a few residual errors. Such cases, w
e often see problems with rhotic vowels as
among those errors.
And what we can see children do is use the
derhonticization, which is when they have l
ost R coloring in vowels. We could also see
this effect consonantal R, as well. And the
examples you show here really illustrate ho
w an "er" sound can be reduced so that that
R coloring is lost.
We also do see a reduction of rhotic diphth
ongs. And so the example here is "or" being
reduced to either an "ah" or an "uh" sound.
Either way, the sound's being altered and th
e R coloring is lost from those vowels.
Week 4 Page 16
So several times I've mentioned how phono
logical processes are systematic patterns.
Well, how do we know what would be con
sidered a systematic pattern? So I'll show y
ou now how to calculate and identify whet
her an error really is a phonological proces
s or a phonological pattern.
We use criteria that have been used to valid
ate the presence of a process. And in the lit
erature, there are several different criteria t
hat have been presented. One that I use is b
y McReynolds and Elbert from the '80s. An
d it indicates that one occurrence of a soun
d change wouldn't mean that a phonologica
l process is existing. And there has to be so
me systematic use.
So their criteria indicate that errors have to
have an opportunity to occur in at least four
instances and that an error has to occur in
at least 20% of the items that could have be
en affected by this process. So let's just thin
k about that for a moment because they're i
mportant criteria.
When I say that an error has to have an opp
ortunity to occur in at least four instances, t
here means that, for example, if we're talki
ng about deaffrication, there at least has to
be four opportunities for deaffrication to oc
cur in our sample, which means there have
to be at least four affricates in the sample i
n order for us to consider the pattern-- cons
ider the error a phonological process.
Along those lines, the error has to occur in
at least 20% of the items that could have be
en affected by the process. So for example,
if I'm looking at final consonant deletion, I
would tally how many final consonants are
in the sample-- meaning how many words
with final consonants are in the sample. An
d let's suppose there are 100. And if I find t
hat 50 of those 100 words are situations wh
ere the final consonant was dropped at the
end, well, that means that final consonant d
eletion occurred 50% of the time.
That example would meet both criteria bec
ause there were at least four instances to oc
cur, right? There were 100 opportunities fo
r final consonant deletion to occur, and it o
Week 4 Page 17
eletion occurred 50% of the time.
That example would meet both criteria bec
ause there were at least four instances to oc
cur, right? There were 100 opportunities fo
r final consonant deletion to occur, and it o
ccurred with 50% accuracy, which is greate
r than our 20% cut off.
And so I illustrate that to you here in this e
xample but laid it out for you to have in yo
ur notes. And so we would count the numb
er of words with final consonants in the sa
mple, and that becomes your denominator.
You're going to count the number of times t
he final consonant was deleted. That's your
numerator. And then you simply do the mat
h but multiply by 100 for a percentage.
And so in our example here, which I laid o
ut for you as well, 50 of the words were pr
oduced without final consonants, so this m
et our criteria of 20% and at least four occu
rrences-- oops: just to stay back to this-- w
hich means that we would certainly then co
nsider that final consonant deletion is a pho
nological process that's happening with so
me regularity.
And so the next phase would be then descri
bing precisely how final consonant deletion
is being used. Because interestingly, half t
he time, there are final consonants that are
being produced. So we want to look at a bi
gger picture through our analysis, and we'll
discuss that soon.
Let's go through a different example.
So what you're going to start to see here is t
hat many errors have different ways of calc
ulating how often the number of opportunit
ies which they can occur. And you'll see th
at here.
Weak syllable deletion-- in order to determ
ine how often weak syllable deletion could
occur, we've got to count the number of mu
ltisyllabic words in the sample because you c
an't have weak syllable deletion unless you
have at least a bisyllabic word. And so the number of multisyllabic words in the sample becomes your
denominator. You're going to count the nu
mber of times a multisyllabic word was reduced in syllable num
ber. Doesn't matter how it was reduced. Jus
t needs to be reduced. And so that becomes
your numerator. And we multiply-- do the
calculation, multiply by 100, and end up wi
th our percentage.
So here, let's suppose that we had 30 words
that were at least bisyllabic. Four of those 30 words were prod
uced by deleting a weak syllable. Well, Mc
Reynolds and Elbert's criteria was not met
because the child did not-- because the patt
ern did not occur in at least 20% of the ite
ms that could have been affected by the pro
cess even though there was opportunity for
the process to occur in at least four instance
s, right? So both criteria need to be met the
re.
We also can look at how many processes ar
e occurring per word because that's also lin
ked to judgments of severity of impairment
. And so Edwards came up with the Proces
s Density Index, where she looked at and c
alculated the number of phonological proce
sses in a sample divided by the total numbe
r of words in that sample. And let's look at
how that would be done.
So if fish became bit, there are actually fou
r processes occurring. F becomes B, and th
at's initial voicing plus stopping, so those ar
e two processes. "Shuh" becomes "tuh", wh
ich is depalatalization plus stopping. And n
Week 4 Page 18
So if fish became bit, there are actually fou
r processes occurring. F becomes B, and th
at's initial voicing plus stopping, so those ar
e two processes. "Shuh" becomes "tuh", wh
ich is depalatalization plus stopping. And n
oticed that we're counting stopping twice.
Now that's one word. Let's say the child pr
oduces another word, and that's "gaw" beco
mes "daw". In this case, there are two proc
esses-- velar assimilation and final consona
nt deletion.
So if we were to say, well, these two words
are our sample-- of course, you would exp
ect to have a bigger sample; but let's suppo
se for this exercise, these two words are ou
r sample-- we would calculate the PDI in th
is way. "Fish" was associated with four pro
cesses, "gaw" with two processes, and the n
umber of phonological processes in the sa
mple divided by the total number of words
in the sample results in a PDI of three.
And so what Edwards did was-- and others
have done-- is look at the relationship betw
een the PDI and speech intelligibility and f
ound that there's an inverse relationship bet
ween PDI and PCC. Which simply means t
hat as PDI goes up, PCC is going to decrea
se.
Makes sense, right? As the number of proc
esses per word increases, your consonant a
ccuracy is going to decrease. And that's exp
ected because the PCC measures correct pr
oduction, and the PDI measures incorrect p
roduction.
Week 4 Page 19
Week 4 Page 20
Week 4 Page 21
Phonological Processes Practice Problems:
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Syllable Structure:
/stim/ ➔ [sətim]
/ tiɵ/ ➔ [iɵ]
/ræt/ ➔ [ræ]
/sɛ.vɪn/ ➔ [sɛ]
/krim/ ➔ [kim]
/sæk/ ➔ [sækə]
/flæt/ ➔ [æt]
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Answer Key:
epenthesis
Initial consonant deletion
Final consonant deletion
Unstressed syllable deletion
Cluster reduction
Epenthesis
Cluster deletion
5:18 PM
Substitution:
➔
1. /got/
[gok]
➔ [dɛm]
2. /ʤɛm/
3. /liӡɚ / ➔ [lidɚ]
➔ [dɪn]
4. /ʃɪn/
5. /læst/ ➔
[wæst]
➔ [tæd]
6. /sæd/
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Answer Key:
Backing
Deaffrication and stopping
Fronting
Stopping
Gliding
Stopping
1.
2.
3.
4.
Assimilation:
/tim/ ➔ [tid]
/peɪd/ ➔ [peɪb]
/fæn/ ➔ [mæn]
/geɪt / ➔ [geɪk]
1.
2.
3.
4.
Answer Key:
Progressive non-contiguous alveolar assimilation
Progressive non-contiguous labial assimilation
Regressive non-contiguous nasal assimilation
Progressive non-contiguous velar assimilation
Idiosyncratic:
Week 4 Page 22
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Idiosyncratic:
1. /mit/ ➔
3. /pԑt/ ➔
4. /lailæk/ ➔
5. /bԑli/ ➔
6. /list/ ➔
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Answer Key:
Denasalization
Glottal replacement
Stops replacing liquids
Backing of stops
Metathesis
[dit]
[ʔԑt]
[daidæk/
[gԑli]
[lits]
Vowel processes:
1. /dɝt/ ➔ [dʌt]
2. /mad/ ➔ [maɪd]
3. /dεli/ ➔ [didi]
4. /saɪt/ ➔ [sat]
5. /hat/ ➔
[nʌt]
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Answer key:
derhoticization
dipthongization
vowel harmony (height harmony)
dipthong reduction
centralization
Week 4 Page 23
Cluster reduction
Cluster reduction
Cluster reduction
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Now that we've established how to determin
e phonological processes, let's talk about the
different ways in which children use proces
ses. So there are persisting normal processes
. And these are processes that remain in the
child's production pattern beyond the age th
at we would expect them to. And we use de
velopmental norms to help us understand th
at.
So a child who continues to use final conson
ant deletion or weak syllable deletion beyon
d the age of three, that's a persisting normal
process. It was normal at one point. Child di
d not suppress it on their own, and continue
s to display the pattern. In contrast, a chrono
logical mismatch is when there's a cooccurrence of some early simplifying patter
ns with characteristics that we would see lat
er in development. And so for instance, the
child deletes the plosive /t/, but accurately p
roduces an affricate. That's unusual-- taking
that early developing sound and not produci
ng it accurately and replacing it with a later
developing sound-- hence the term chronolo
gical mismatch.
We could have children use unusual process
es, like all of the idiosyncratic patterns we t
alked about earlier. And these are patterns, a
gain, that are just not seen typically in norm
al speech. And we also can see the variable
use of processes-- meaning, when more than
once simplifying process operates with the
same type of structure. So meaning that fron
ting of /k/ on one occasion and deleting of /
k/ in another. And so that variable use is so
mething that is displayed just by some child
ren. And in contrast, others are very, very c
onsistent in the type of pattern that they do
display.
And then lastly, a systematic sound preferen
ce. So a while back, I talked about how whe
n children over use a sound, like /d/, to repla
ce many other sounds. And I brought that u
p a few different times. Well, we use the ter
m systematic sound preference to refer to a
situation where one type of a consonant is u
sed for a large range of different target types
, like in the example of
/d/ replacing /t/, /z/, and perhaps an /s/.
And so we might identify a few different pr
ocesses that result in the reduction of phono
logical contrasts in the child's system. But u
nderlying all of this is really a lack of a pho
nemic contrast between sounds. So the child
doesn't have a different linguistic represent
ation we suspect for /d/, and for /t/, and for
/n/, and
for /s/, et cetera. This could indicate a phono
logical learning disability perhaps, but in ve
ry young children with intervention, that wo
uld be something we would need to explore
in terms of their response intervention.
Week 5 Page 1
uld be something we would need to explore
in terms of their response intervention.
In several places, I've mentioned research o
n normative data for-- related to phonologic
al processes. And so we rely on this data to
understand at what point should processes
be eliminated on their own.
So studies of process dissolution have help
ed us understand the ages, or maybe the age
range, where we would expect a process to
be reduced or eliminated. And many of the
se are largescale studies that have tried determine that
age or age range where a certain percentage
of children stop using a process. Some hav
e examined differences in suppression acro
ss specific different processes.
But what you'll see as we go through this w
ork is that there are some differences betwe
en the normative studies. And there are a lo
t of factors that can contribute to these diffe
rences, such as the age ranges studied, the e
licitation process-- how are words and prod
uctions elicited-- and perhaps some differen
ces in the analysis process.
So let's start with Presser er al. in 1988-- lo
oked at 60 children between 1 and 1/2 and
2 and 1/2, roughly, years of age. Importantl
y, words were elicited by objects or questio
ns. And their aim was to look at most of the
processes identified in the literature at that
time.
What they found-- so between this 1
and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 year old age range that
-- what was most common were cluster red
uction and liquid simplification, problems
with stridents that usually involved stridenc
y deletion, problems producing velars, resul
ting in velar errors, and stopping. They fou
nd initial and final consonant to a lesser ext
ent. And they also reported that all
Week 5 Page 2
with stridents that usually involved stridenc
y deletion, problems producing velars, resul
ting in velar errors, and stopping. They fou
nd initial and final consonant to a lesser ext
ent. And they also reported that all
of the percentages decreased with age withi
n this age range that they studied.
Carol StoelGammon looked at a range of 33 children
who were around two years of age-- so
right in the middle of that prior study. But t
hese samples were collected through conve
rsational speech samples. So the children w
ere around two. But the objective was to co
llect representative samples of their speech.
And they found that children produced syll
able shapes like CV, CVC, CVCV, and CV
CVC. I know that sounds repetitive. But thi
nk about what kinds of structures those
are. Those are pretty basic structures. And t
hey're really CV and CVC combined, those
very basic structures-- and then combined t
o form a few different word shapes.
They also found that there were a few cons
onant clusters in the initial position of word
s and just a few in the final position. Overal
l, they found that children tended to produc
e nine to 10 different types of consonants in
the initial position and that these typically i
ncluded stops, nasals, fricatives, and glides.
So that was what was most common at the
beginning of words.
And then at the ends of the words, there we
re primarily nasals-- stops, mostly-- but als
o nasals, fricatives, and some liquids-- so m
ore simple syllable shapes, more consonant
s at the beginning of words than at the ends
of words.
Kahn looked at 60 children who were three
years of age and had them describe drawing
s, which is also intended to be quite naturali
stic. And so they found that there were cert
ain processes that happened most frequentl
y, like cluster reduction, problems with liqu
ids resulting in simplification, reducing syll
ables, and surprisingly, not as much final c
onsonant deletion. So what we're really loo
king at is, well, what kinds of patterns are-do we expect to see eliminated by that thre
e year of age? And perhaps final consonant
deletion is one of them.
And Hodson and Paden also looked at a lar
ge group of children who were 60. Sorry, th
ey weren't 60 years of age. They were 60 c
hildren, four years of age. And their most fr
equent processes that they used were, at thi
s slightly older age now-- is postvocalic de
voicing-- remember, that's when the voicin
g at the final consonant is lost-- vocalizatio
n-- again, that alteration changed to final "u
ls" or "ers" and substitutions of some fricati
ves.
And then lastly, Haelsig and Madison looke
d at 50 children between three and five and
found that certain patterns were predomina
nt more so early on, like cluster reduction,
weak syllable deletion used by more of the
three- and 3-and-1/2-yearolds. Weak syllable deletion, interestingly,
and cluster reduction were used a lot by the
4-and-1/2- to five-yearolds. I'll come back to that in a minute. And
there were some patterns that were rarely u
sed by any of the groups, including velar as
similation and denasalization and some oth
ers.
The notion that weak syllable deletion was
found in 4-and-1/2- to five-yearWeek 5 Page 3
sed by any of the groups, including velar as
similation and denasalization and some oth
ers.
The notion that weak syllable deletion was
found in 4-and-1/2- to five-yearolds really contrasts with a lot of what we r
ead about in the literature. And I would thin
k that some of that could relate to the kinds
of words that children were actually able-were actually asked to produce.
So while we use that three-yearold age group as a marking, one thing to thi
nk about is that certain patterns can be seen
for an extended period if children are prod
ucing long, multisyllabic words. So producing "spaghetti" as
"ghetti" in a four-year-old or 4-and-1/2yearold who doesn't really have many other erro
rs wouldn't raise concern given the comple
xity of that word. And so that's something t
o think about when we're thinking about the
se developmental norms.
So children can have a variety of strategic
approaches to phonology. And we'll go thr
ough a few different possibilities here.
But for one, there is this question of what
motivates these phonological strategies. W
hat motivates the patterns that a child displ
ays? Are they motivated by perceptual fact
ors, meaning the way children are perceivi
ng sounds? Or are they motivated by produ
ctive factors, maybe a limitation motoricall
y?
And so it's interesting to think about. And a
s researchers and clinicians, we don't really
have all of that sorted out. Nonetheless, w
e really try to understand the child's percep
tual capabilities along with their productio
n skills in assessment and treatment.
So to talk about simplification, let's talk ab
out two broad types of simplification. And
they are syllable-maintaining and syllablereducing processes. A syllable-
Week 5 Page 4
So to talk about simplification, let's talk ab
out two broad types of simplification. And
they are syllable-maintaining and syllablereducing processes. A syllablemaintaining process strives to do just what
the name says, and that is maintain the nu
mber of syllables, even if there's going to b
e an error.
So assimilation-- window becoming nihdah or reduplication, carrot becoming dada
. Clearly the words changed. But the child
has used this strategy-- whatever that strate
gy might be-- to make sure that they're mai
ntaining the appropriate number of syllable
s in the words. Metathesis is another one. I
nstead of elephant, the child produces ephe
lant, moving some things around. So some
children are syllable maintainers even thou
gh they produce a lot of errors.
Other children use a lot of syllablereducing processes. And so weak syllable d
eletion-- telephone becoming tehphone or coalescence, sweater becoming fe
t are both examples of how a child can hav
e errors but not be able to maintain the nu
mber of syllables in the word.
There's also a body of literature that's look
ed at idiosyncratic strategies and rules. An
d so these are studies that have been done o
n typicallydeveloping children who have shown that c
hildren can sometimes come up with their
own rules. And there might be patterns that
have not been seen in the literature, hence
the term idiosyncratic, but that the children
do outgrow on their own and aren't in need
of intervention. And so I list a few here, a
nd we'll discuss some of them in a moment
.
So Fey and Grandour's work in the '80s nic
ely illustrated one of these patterns. So the
y described something called postnasalization. And this was one participant's
-- one child's unique phonological rule. An
d what this child did was they produced vo
iced word final stops with a nasal release.
And they also found that voiceless word fi
nal stops were produced appropriately. It w
as just the voiced word final stop that was
problematic.
And so for example, peep might have been
produced with a little more aspiration, like
beep. The H indicates aspiration. But the b
ad was produced with a nasal release, as in
badden. And we saw that again in stub bec
oming dobbum.
Well, how do they interpret this pattern? T
hey suggested that the child created a rule
with both phonetic and phonological motiv
ation, which is interesting. The phonetic m
otivation is that the voiceless stop had an o
ral release, and that the voice stopped had a
nasal release. And from the phonological
perspective, the organization of contrast is
marked in the word final position, but not
marked consistently in the word initial or i
n the word within position.
And so what this child was able to do was
come up with this pattern in order to achie
ve production of the phoneme, even though
it wasn't produced in the typical format. I
mportantly, though, the child outgrew this
pattern.
And then lastly, Stemberger described her r
esults of a diary study of her own daughter.
And she looked at betweenword processes in this 2 and 1/2 year old c
Week 5 Page 5
pattern.
And then lastly, Stemberger described her r
esults of a diary study of her own daughter.
And she looked at betweenword processes in this 2 and 1/2 year old c
hild who was followed longitudinally. Bet
weenword processes are so interesting to consid
er because they are processes that spread b
etween words.
And in adult speech, in normal adult speec
h, this is quite common in connected speec
h, where even, for instance, the vowel in s
mall words, like "the," may be simplified e
ven though we might transcribe that in a di
fferent format. So they found a range of pr
ocesses. And here are just two examples of
this to make the point.
One is a word final nasal assimilation. And
this means that assimilation of nasality mo
ves across a word boundary. And we can s
ee that here in the nasal element from the
M spreading to the prior T so that T becom
es an M-- maintains the place of articulatio
n, but added nasality. And the Hfusion resyllabification is a resyllabificatio
n if the next word starts with an H. So not
out here becomes more like nah tah
tay because of the H that is present near the
other phonemes.
And so these are just some glimpses into th
e literature of some of the atypical patterns
that children might have. The takehome message is that typical children can h
ave a range of patterns, but that they will s
uppress these patterns without intervention.
It's when that does not happen that we nee
d to begin exploring what's going on more
deeply.
Week 5 Page 6
Now, let's examine the process by which so
unds are simplified and changed within a w
ord, which is called derivation. In doing so,
we can actually look at speech patterns, the
ir changes, to figure out how a word is sim
plified, but importantly, to understand if ma
ybe there's an order to the changes that are
occurring when more than one change is oc
curring in a word.
So for example, "place" becomes "bape." L
et's look at all the possible things that could
happen here. Well, first, we've deleted the
L, right, and the cluster is reduced. So we'v
e gotten rid of this L. And that's step one. A
nd we're left with "pape." Sorry, we're left
with "pace" rather. But clearly, that's not qu
ite what the child has produced.
And so there is labial assimilation. And so t
he labial feature from the p spreads to the fi
nal s. And so s is voiceless. That element is
maintained. And the sound is made to beco
me a p, and then we have "pape." But that's
not the end result either. The end result is "
bape." So what happens next is that voicing
from the vowel influences that initial p, res
ulting in the b.
So you could see here how there are a varie
ty of things that happened. But I also tried t
o capture the order in which those processe
s might happen.
Here's another example. "Snake' becomes "
gag." In "snake," the s
is deleted preconsonantally, so we've got an
other cluster problem. And that results in "n
ake." But of course, that's not the final chan
ge. And what we have here next is that alve
olar consonants are going to harmonize to t
he point of articulation of the following con
sonant. So that final k is going to impact th
e initial phoneme, resulting in a k at the beg
inning.
And then finally, there can be some spreadi
ng from the vowel, resulting in "gag." So y
our end result should be this. Right? Which
means simply that the voicing from the vo
wel is influencing all that's going on.
And so what
you can see here most importantly is that th
ere are several different error patterns goin
g on. But we want to try to be mindful of th
is possible order that could be as these chan
ges unravel.
So let's try that together here with "twice" b
ecoming "dife" and "one' becoming "ma." S
o let's do this. First we've got tw becoming
d. And so what could happen? Well, it's lik
ely that the w is deleted. We have a cluster
reduction. And then what could happen nex
t is that the vowel could influence-- so you
would then be left with just the t. Then the
vowel could influence the voicing of that t,
changing it to a d.
"One" is interesting. This is a great exampl
e that reminds us of how to transcribe first.
Right? Because "oe" is really phonetically t
ranscribed like that. And so when "one" bec
omes "ma," we got a few different things g
oing on. The first step-- so you might want
to delete the final consonant to begin with.
But the reason why I wouldn't do that is tha
t nasal feature spreads to the w. And so that
nasal feature turns the w into an m. And th
Week 5 Page 7
oing on. The first step-- so you might want
to delete the final consonant to begin with.
But the reason why I wouldn't do that is tha
t nasal feature spreads to the w. And so that
nasal feature turns the w into an m. And th
at would result in "mun." And then you've
got the final consonants deletion, which wo
uld result in "ma." OK?
So I hope that's captured at least the essenc
e of how changes to multiple processes mig
ht look like.
So we're going to cover constituent process
es in some more depth here. And we're reall
y trying to capture how each process chang
es one feature or an attribute, similar to the
examples I showed earlier.
And in this case, we have the word "cob." "
Cob" is replaced with "dab." So in this situa
tion, a few different things are going on. Fir
st, we have fronting. And the phoneme that'
s fronted is the K. And
in this case, K is fronted and becomes D.
But even though K becomes D, in the end, t
hat's probably not the only step that happen
s first. It's probably more likely that first, K
becomes T, right?
And the reason why I made that change is t
hat K is voiceless. And T is voiceless. So if
we're changing one thing at a time, then w
e're only going to change the change in plac
e.
But then, here, we're left with a T in that ini
tial position. So maybe here we've got "tab.
" And now T becomes D because of prevoc
alic voicing. And that would result in "dab,
" right?
So of course, we could have jumped both st
eps. But this helps us break down how front
ing can occur. And then voicing would be a
separate issue.
Let's look at this in a different example, "sh
ip" becoming "dip." So "sh" is a palatal. An
d D is an alveolar-- different place of articu
lation. So if "sh" were to be fronted and it's
a voiceless fricative, "sh" is going to becom
e an S, right? That's how it would change fi
rst.
And then next phase would be that S beco
mes T if stopping is going to occur. So if
S becomes T, we're maintaining the voicing
. It's still voiceless. By maintaining voicing,
I mean like voicing status. It's still voiceles
Week 5 Page 8
mes T if stopping is going to occur. So if
S becomes T, we're maintaining the voicing
. It's still voiceless. By maintaining voicing,
I mean like voicing status. It's still voiceles
s. But the manner of articulation has stoppe
d. And then we end up with prevocalic voic
ing, where the T becomes a D. And so what
you can see here is how we went through t
hese three sequential steps to really tease ap
art three different processes that could be o
perating within this one example.
So what's the meaningfulness of all of this?
Well, in treatment, we can address these co
nstituent processes individually. We want t
o try to highlight processes that we do
not think are ageappropriate based on the literature and thos
e that are not in the adult language being le
arned-- so some unusual atypical process.
And then we might carefully select the sou
nds that are undergoing changes. And so w
hen we get to treatment, we'll begin thinkin
g about some different ways of approachin
g this-- perhaps using a cycles approach ver
sus a minimal pair approach or using mini
mal versus maximal contrast. And we'll go
into these in depth.
The takehome message, though, is that by dissecting
out and understanding how processes are u
sed and the multiple processes that could ap
ply to words, we begin to think about how t
o select and prioritize-- are the areas that w
e want to focus on in treatment.
So let's take a slightly different spin o
n the way we're thinking of sound ch
anges and relate changes to changes i
n distinctive features.
This kind of comes back to the notion
that many of the distinctive feature c
hanges we see reflect a change in pla
ce, manner, or voicing. And so for ins
tance, if a plus nasal phoneme becom
es minus nasal, then that can reflect a
change in manner. If plus continuant
-- it loses the continuant-- loses its co
ntinuancy, that's a change in manner
as well. So that's really key to think a
bout.
Now, if a minus labial becomes plus l
abial, that's a change in place of artic
ulation. And similarly, if a plus back
becomes minus back, that's also a cha
nge in place. We can have voicing ch
anges as well. And that's when minus
voice becomes-- when plus voice be
comes minus voice or even if minus
voice became plus voice. The point is
the place, manner, and voicing chang
es we've talked about and we've linke
d to phonemes also weaves into what
we know about phonological process
es and also weaves into distinctive fe
ature changes that we see.
To take that one more step, distinctiv
e features can be paired with phonolo
gical processes. For example, when a
plus nasal loses its nasal quality and
now is minus nasal, that aligns with d
enasalization.
When a plus continuant loses its conti
nuant quality and becomes minus con
tinuant, that's going to align with stop
ping, right, because in stopping we've
Week 5 Page 9
enasalization.
When a plus continuant loses its conti
nuant quality and becomes minus con
tinuant, that's going to align with stop
ping, right, because in stopping we've
got a fricative being stopped to some
other sound, typically a plosive. Min
us labial becoming plus labial-- well,
it should be the reverse. Plus, yeah-no, minus labial becoming plus labial
is labialization. We're adding the labi
al quality. Plus back becoming minus
back is fronting because we're chang
ing the place of articulation from the
back of the oral cavity to the front of
the oral cavity. And then lastly, plus
voice losing its voicing quality aligns
with postvocalic devoicing.
So the whole point here is that rather
than trying to create three separate ca
tegories of information in your mind,
we need now to begin to think about
how these categories overlap in order
to think about error analysis and trea
tment planning on a higher level.
Phonological representation refers to th
e underlying representation, which is in
formation that the speaker has and how
that relates to what actually is produce
d. We can think of this in a few differe
nt ways. The underlying representation
is stored phonological information that
a speaker has. The surface representati
on is the phonetic representation, and t
hat means the way a word is actually pr
oduced. And the derivation is how we
get from the underlying representation t
o the surface representation, the steps i
nvolved in that production.
So, illustrated here is a framework that
we can use to describe phonological rul
es. In this situation, A becomes B. A is
the underlying form. B is the surface fo
rm. And in the word cot, cot becomes d
ot, k becomes d. And so we can describ
e the phonetic context and word bound
aries using this framework. A becomes
B. A Is the underlying form. B is a surf
ace form. And the pound or hashtag lin
e simply indicates the position. And tha
t means that this framework illustrates t
hat this is happening at the initial positi
on of the word and the context is show
n or the word boundaries are shown the
re where it's the consonant plus coronal
that the coronal feature is added to this
particular word.
So this accounts for cat becoming dat a
nd also back becoming bat, how there's
a change and that change is influenced
or involves adding a distinctive feature
. But just not to confuse one point, how
ever, that dat becoming back are chang
es that are happening.
OK. Let me just underline these for yo
Week 5 Page 10
A becomes B. A Is the underlying f
orm. B is a surface form. And the p
ound or hashtag line simply indicat
or involves adding a distinctive feature
. But just not to confuse one point, how
ever, that dat becoming back are chang
es that are happening.
OK. Let me just underline these for yo
u. So cat becoming dat also happens in
the initial word position. But back beco
ming bat are same kind of change, but
different word position. It's at the end o
f words. And so the illustration here is
when the sound changes at the beginni
ng of words that's a match right here. A
nd we have a different way of illustrati
ng final word position. And it looks so
mething like this.
And I'll go into that in more detail in th
e next segment. One last point here, an
d that is that we describe values as bein
g unmarked and marked. And the notio
n of unmarkedness describes the natura
lness of the feature within a segment. T
hat means that if a member is unmarke
d, it's motorically easier to produce, me
aning it requires less articulatory effort.
These are phonemes that we usually se
e early in development, and are those t
hat occur in more languages of the worl
d. So unmarked phonemes are the early
sounds that come in, whereas marked
phonemes are later developing and mor
e complex sounds from an articulatory
standpoint.
Now let's discuss phonological rules that m
ight be operating in a child's system. These
rules capture a link between phonological
elements and so they may reflect systemati
c patterns, they can occur at several differe
nt phonological levels. If you think back to
what we just covered, that underlying repr
esentation, well, that's the target. That's wh
at a child is striving for. The surface repres
entation is their production.
And so the difference, or how one goes fro
m the underlying to the surface, the differe
nce between those two representations that
could have a phonetic explanation, it could
have a phonological explanation. And so t
he phonetic would be some kind of articula
tory reason, the phonological might be a co
gnitive reason why there's a difference bet
ween the target and the production.
So there are three considerations. One is th
e element that will change. And that can be
the phoneme or perhaps the class of phone
mes. When we think of a phonological cha
nge, usually that's a change that just doesn't
affect one sound, at least for many. We als
o want to think about that specific change t
hat can occur. And so maybe we're changin
g some specifications of the feature, or ma
Week 5 Page 11
A becomes B. A Is the underlying f
orm. B is a surface form. And the p
ound or hashtag line simply indicat
es the position. And that means that
this framework illustrates that this
is happening at the initial position
of the word and the context is show
n or the word boundaries are show
n there where it's the consonant plu
s coronal that the coronal feature is
added to this particular word.
phonetic would be some kin
d of articulatory reason, the
phonological might be a cog
nitive reason why there's a d
ifference between the target
and the production.
nge, usually that's a change that just doesn't
affect one sound, at least for many. We als
o want to think about that specific change t
hat can occur. And so maybe we're changin
g some specifications of the feature, or ma
ybe we're doing more than that and we're d
eleting or inserting or moving some eleme
nt.
The last thing is the-- at least from these co
nsiderations-- are the context in which the
change will occur. And we need to capture
where in the syllable or where in the word
a change is happening. We also need to cap
ture the sounds that are around the error
of production, because those sounds could
have an impact on what the child is produc
ing.
So to capture phonological patterns, we wa
nt to be able to look and describe what's ch
anging in terms of distinctive features. And
our objective is to try to understand what
might be changing across multiple phonem
es that share the same feature. Just to give
you an example, if we see that a child has l
ost the continuant feature in s, well the first
step would be let me look at other phonem
es that share that feature. And am I seeing t
he same problem with those phonemes?
I'm also interested in whether this could im
pact that same-- whether the continuant fea
ture is lost is s when it appears in a variety
of word positions. And so I'm really trying
to get a sense of what is the phonological-what kind of a phonological formula can I
use to capture the actual change that might
be occurring?
So here's the phonological formula. A beco
mes B in the context of X and Y. And X an
d Y is that phonetic context. A is the under
lying representation, B is a surface form. I
mentioned already that X and Y is phonetic
context. And the line indicates where the s
egment is. So then if you look at the next t
hree groupings, the pound and the line is in
itial position. The line and the pound is fin
al position. And the v line v is the intervoc
alic position.
So this would simply be-- so what you're s
eeing here is similar in format to the interv
ocalic position, thus saying A becomes B i
n the context of this word position. Let's ap
ply that to an actual example. So if A beco
mes B in the context of a phonetic environ
ment, pi or we're looking here at P become
s B in the context of this syllable initial pos
ition or the prevocalic position.
So here is the underlying representation. P
the underlying representation, B is the surf
ace form. That's what the child actually pro
duces. And then the phonetic context is sho
wn here, which simply means that at the be
ginning of words, prevocalic. Now, if we
were to look at the distinctive feature chan
ge, the distinctive features associated with t
he intended production was that the P is pl
us consonantal, minus continuant, minus n
asal and minus voice.
And so that still holds for the voice cognat
e B, but there's one thing added and that is
plus voice. So this simply means that these
are the distinctive features associated with
the intended production. And then we've ad
ded plus voice to that in the initial word po
sition. Let's try a different example. And in
this case sup becomes tup. The features th
at are associated-- so all else stays the sam
e. It's just the s to t change. So we're going
Week 5 Page 12
nitive reason why there's a d
ifference between the target
and the production.
ded plus voice to that in the initial word po
sition. Let's try a different example. And in
this case sup becomes tup. The features th
at are associated-- so all else stays the sam
e. It's just the s to t change. So we're going
to look at distinctive features associated wi
th that change.
For s, s
is plus consonantal, plus continuant, minus
nasal and minus voice. Now, if
s becomes t, there is only one feature that i
s lost, and that is the continuant feature whi
ch is represented here. So here we're sayin
g that these were the original features that's
in the intended form. The child losses the
continuant feature as s is produced as t in t
he initial position.
And one final one is that is the case of bun
ny becoming bu d. Now, in this case, that's
a very different word position. And you ca
n see that here it's the intervocalic position,
and we're describing how the intended pro
duction was of n was that it's plus consona
ntal, plus sonorant, plus nasal, plus voice a
nd plus coronal.
If n becomes d, which of those features cha
nge? Well the consonantal feature stays, w
e lose the sonorant feature, we lose the nas
al feature, but voice and coronal stay the sa
me. So
this simply is a way of describing a feature
change when one sound becomes another s
ound and highlighting the phonetic context
s in which that feature change occurs.
P the underlying representation, B is the
surface form. That's what the child actua
lly produces. And then the phonetic cont
ext is shown here, which simply means t
hat at the beginning of words, prevocalic
. Now, if we
were to look at the distinctive feature ch
ange, the distinctive features associated
with the intended production was that th
e P is plus consonantal, minus continuan
t, minus nasal and minus voice.
And so that still holds for the voice cogn
ate B, but there's one thing added and th
at is plus voice. So this simply means th
at these are the distinctive features assoc
iated with the intended production. And
then we've added plus voice to that in th
e initial word position.
The features that are associated-- so all
else stays the same. It's just the s to t ch
ange. So we're going to look at distincti
ve features associated with that change.
For s, s
is plus consonantal, plus continuant, mi
nus nasal and minus voice. Now, if
s becomes t, there is only one feature th
at is lost, and that is the continuant featu
re which is represented here. So here we
're saying that these were the original fe
atures that's in the intended form. The c
hild losses the continuant feature as s is
produced as t in the initial position.
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And you can see that here it's the inte
rvocalic position, and we're describing
how the intended production was of n
was that it's plus consonantal, plus so
norant, plus nasal, plus voice and plus
coronal.
If n becomes d, which of those feature
s change? Well the consonantal featur
e stays, we lose the sonorant feature,
we lose the nasal feature, but voice an
d coronal stay the same. So
this simply is a way of describing a fe
ature change when one sound become
s another sound and highlighting the p
honetic contexts in which that feature
change occurs.
Let's now discuss the components of sylla
bles. We can think about segmentation in
terms of the way the consonant and vowel
s follow each other in a variety of differen
t arrangements. And so, we can interestin
gly take words, at least in English, that lo
ok very similar and have very similar com
ponents, change one sound. And we comp
letely change the meaning of that word. S
o met, bet, get and net all have a very simi
lar final VC. But different initial consona
nt. And as a result, that changes the meani
ng of the word, of course. And so we have
that flexibility in English.
But let's think a little bit about contextual
variability in that a language has sounds-all languages have sounds that can be use
d in different combinations. And some so
unds have properties that differ, dependin
g on the context. For instance, the way voi
cing is produced can vary slightly, depend
ing on the context in which it's produced.
You know, aspiration, for instance, can pl
ay a role where initial phonemes, initial pl
osives are more aspirated than plosives th
at are at the end of the word. So certainly
there are these kind of allophonic variatio
ns of sounds that alter how they are percei
ved.
Let's think about how these sounds are co
mbined to form syllables and the composi
tion of a syllable. And so we think of a syl
lable as the smallest grouping of segments
. Each syllable has a peak and, that peak i
s typically the vowel. And then less promi
nent phonemes are going to surround it.
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tion of a syllable. And so we think of a syl
lable as the smallest grouping of segments
. Each syllable has a peak and, that peak i
s typically the vowel. And then less promi
nent phonemes are going to surround it.
We talk about the beginning of the syllabl
e as the onset. Meaning, if it's a consonant
, there's an onset. The peak is the vowel.
And the coda is the final component. And
this review for most of you. But it's a goo
d refresher. And then the rhyme is the pea
k plus the coda.
And so, every syllable will have a peak. B
ut it may not have onset and it may not ha
ve a coda, right? Now, if there is no coda,
the rhyme would simply be the peak.
So when we think about taking a word, w
e need to then break it down into syllables
. And dissect those syllables. And so whe
n we talk about peak onset coda, we do th
at for each syllable, separate in a word. A
nd so in this case, the onset of numbers fo
r syllable number one will be N. The peak
is the vowel. And M is the coda. And of c
ourse, the rhyme is the peak plus the coda.
In the second syllable, B is the onset, er is
the peak, and za is the coda with the rhy
me being erz. Right? So we're going to do
-- we can dissect each syllable into these c
omponents for every syllable of a word.
And then, we can-- we can do this even w
hen there is a consonant cluster. So in this
case, we've got the onset is B. The peak i
s the ah. And the coda is the cluster togeth
er.
Now, there are some features of syllables.
So for instance, syllables are allowed to h
ave onsets, but allowed not to have codas.
And in early development, we do see ma
ny syllables that do not have codas in pro
ductions of the target word. And so in En
glish, the onset is preferred, and the coda i
s avoided. The syllable with a coda is refe
rred to as a closed syllable. And the syllab
le without a coda is referred to as the open
syllable.
And so when we think about this notion th
at codas are avoided, well it kind of links t
o what we see early in development, wher
e children are likely to produce a lot of C
V combinations. And that could be becaus
e the target word was CV, or maybe beca
use they simplified the word to that open s
yllable.
And just to mention one more point. So if
we look here at the word bunny, we've br
oken it up in two different ways. And rem
ember the periods indicate a syllable boun
dary. So in this situation, in bunny, each s
yllable has an onset in the first one. Each
syllable has an onset, but no coda. And in
the second scenario, the first syllable has
an onset and a coda, and the second syllab
le has no onset or coda. And technically, t
hat N could be ambisyllabic, meaning it c
ould kind of belong to either syllable. Alt
hough it feels more natural to break this u
p, as in the first example in bunny, than ra
ther than bun-ny.
Either way, the key point here is, let's mak
e sure we're carefully identifying the sylla
bles in words, and then the components of
each syllable that's present within a word.
Week 5 Page 15
So in this case, we'v
e got the onset is B.
The peak is the ah. A
nd the coda is the clu
ster together.
A discussion of multisyllabic words has
to include a focus on stress pattern. And
stress pattern can simply refer to identif
ying the stressed syllables versus the uns
tressed syllables in a word. We describe
the stressed syllables as being strong an
d the unstressed syllables as being weak.
And then those syllables are grouped in
to a higherorder unit called a foot. And you'll see t
hat in a moment.
But first, when we think about this from
an acoustic perspective, what makes a s
yllable sound stressed? Well, an increas
e in duration or intensity or pitch or all t
hree of these factors will give a syllable
more prominence. So let's talk about tw
o very basic forms, the trochaic versus t
he iambic form.
The trochaic form is leftprominent and means it's strongweak. So the example here is happy. Ha
ppy is a word that has two syllables. Firs
t syllable is strong. Second syllable
is weak. They are grouped together to fo
rm one foot.
And you can see that here, how the first
syllable
is strong. This syllable is weak. And the
n both syllables are combined to form o
ne foot. So a foot can have more than on
e syllable in it, but it only will have one
stressed syllable. And the trochaic form
is the predominant form in English, mea
ning we have more trochaic forms than i
ambic forms.
Iambic form is weakstrong. And if you look at the word ball
oon, you'll notice that the first syllable is
weak. The second syllable
is strong. But again, both syllables are c
ombined to form one foot. And this is re
ferred to as iambic or right-prominent.
Now, a few things to think about, the fir
st is the schwa is never stressed. So for s
ome of you, some students have difficult
y identifying stress pattern in word. And
we're going to start by thinking of really
Week 5 Page 16
Now, a few things to think about, the fir
st is the schwa is never stressed. So for s
ome of you, some students have difficult
y identifying stress pattern in word. And
we're going to start by thinking of really
just bisyllabic syllables. In doing so, wh
en you think of your transcription, if you
transcribed a vowel as a schwa, and you
're preceding it as unstressed, then that s
yllable cannot be stressed.
The other thing to think about is how lo
ng and diphthongs-- long vowels and di
phthongs are stressed. And some other h
elpful hints are that short and lax vowels
-- the short and lax vowels shown here a
re stressed, but that low vowels may als
o be stressed. And so the type of vowel
might help indicate whether the syllable
you're looking at is going to be weak or
is going to be strong.
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Practice
Thursday, February 25, 2021
5:13 PM
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McReynolds+Elbert1981
Thursday, February 25, 2021
5:11 PM
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Printout
Thursday, February 25, 2021
5:15 PM
1. Fronting /saus/
2. stopping /daus/
3. Final consonant deletion /dau/
1. Fronting /tup/
2. Postvocalic Voicing /tub/
3. Prevocalic voicing /dub/
1. Denasalization /daif/
2. Stopping /daip/
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cluster reduction /pun/
Prevocalic voicing /bun/
Backing /dun/
Final consonant deletion
Week 5 Page 38
tuthpeist
tuthpeist->tupu
FCD tupeist
Cluster deletion tupei
Vowel Backing/Rounding tupu
Tuthpeist->tupeist FCD
Tupeist->tupuReduplication
Klaep->waep
Klaep->kaep->labial assimilation paep->waep gliding
Klaep->laep->weep
CR->gliding
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Printout
Thursday, February 25, 2021
5:15 PM
My
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Saturday, February 27, 2021
6:07 PM
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Sunday, March 7, 2021
7:20 PM
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Printout
Sunday, January 10, 2021
6:13 PM
Now that you have an understanding of stro
ng vs. weak syllables, and how they can co
mbine, let's talk about a more complex pros
odic hierarchy.
So I mentioned before that syllables are co
mbined into feet. And so, for instance, a str
ong or weak combination, a strong a weak c
ombination of syllables would combine into
one prosodic foot. And that's a higher level
unit. Now, multisyllabic words, so words-- usually, we're tal
king about words that are greater than two s
yllables-- could have more than one foot. T
he syllable with the greatest level of stress i
s considered to be primary stress. And we
mark that with a capital S. Other feet could
have secondary stress and we mark that wit
h a lowercase s.
And so, your first objective is to, through th
e listening labs, focus on perceiving primar
y stress. And then once you've done that, yo
u'll begin to learn how to perceive secondar
y stress.
Let's look at this prosodic hierarchy. So this
is the word happy again. And just as a remi
nder, it's a strong weak combination. And t
hat's a trochaic pattern. So, the word-- this f
oot is combined-- is a combination of these
two syllables that are strong and weak.
But this gets a little bit more complicated w
hen we're looking at a three syllable word li
ke kangaroo. And one thing I want to highli
ght here that might-- is a clue to how this is
all situated. And that is that the primary stre
ss is on the final syllable, .0.
right? So write-- let's write that down below
here. Primary stress is on the final syllable.
Well that also aligns with-- it's lined up perf
ectly underneath the prosodic word. And so
if you were to look at this just visually, you
would be able to see that that holds primar
y stress. And the secondary stress is
on the first syllable. Because that has secon
dary prominence. Kangaroo. And the middl
e syllable is the weak.
And so this illustrates how, in this multi-- i
n this three syllable word, we've got two dif
ferent types of stress. Now, that gets even a
little more complicated when we think abou
t the word hibernation, which is a four sylla
ble word.
Week 6 Page 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Result= wS
Department= wSS
Avenue= Sws
Purposeful= Sws
Serial= Sws
Belongings= wSs
ferent types of stress. Now, that gets even a
little more complicated when we think abou
t the word hibernation, which is a four sylla
ble word.
Now similarly, let's line up-- let's write out
our stress pattern. We've got primary stress
on the third syllable. Hyber-NAtion. From my transcription, I'm seeing two
things. One is a schwa here. That's the er so
und. And another is a schwa here just by its
elf, which indicates that these two syllables
are weak. And then the hi takes secondary s
tress. Hibernation.
So now, let's match the word with the proso
dic hierarchy. And so, we'll do that in the m
ost basic form just using these bisyllabic w
ords. So pepper is going to be prosodic wor
d A, right, because it is strong weak. Giraff
e is prosodic word B because it's weak stron
g. And paper is prosodic word A because it
is strong weak.
And so, that really helps us think about how
these syllables are grouped together to for
m words. Now some basic stress generaliza
tions-- because this does get harder as word
s increase in length. But a few things to hel
p guide you. When the last word has two sy
llables, that word is often right prominent.
When both feet have only one syllable, pri
mary stress is likely to be on the final foot.
So yes, we can have a situation where there
might be a two syllable word. It's not as co
mmon, but we could have a two syllable wo
rd where each word has some stress, as in r
accoon. Right? I didn't say raccoon. It's racc
oon. And that's why we're seeing secondary
stress first, followed by primary stress after
. In that type of combination, primary stress
is usually on the final foot.
And then lastly, if the first foot has two syll
ables, and the final foot only has one, then t
he word is generally left prominent, like in t
he word hibernate.
So these guidelines will help you. But the b
est thing that you can do is practice through
the examples that you're given to-- moving
from bisyllabic to more complex multisyllabic words.
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Now we're going to focus on basic aspects o
f nonlinear phonology, starting with some ba
sic terminology. If we think of speech produ
ction, and much of what we've covered up u
ntil now, there are many elements involved.
We've talked about the distinctive features, h
ow features combine to form segments, seg
ments combine to form syllables, syllables c
an combine to form feet, feet combine to for
m words, and words combine to form phrase
s.
So the focus so far has really been on all of t
hese different elements, and where we're goi
ng to move toward now is for one, how they
can function independently, but also how the
y operate in relation to each other, and the li
nks between these different layers. Nonlinea
r phonology, within nonlinear phonology, th
ere is a focus on this hierarchical organizatio
n of words, syllables, segments, and features
. This is what we call the prosodic hierarchy.
And you'll see in the images to come, how t
here are these different levels of representati
on. Each level is called a tier.
Now, each tier can operate on its own, can b
e independent. But there are clear links to th
e other tiers within this hierarchical organiza
tion. So hierarchical structure, broadly, has a
prosodic component and a segmental comp
onent. And the prosodic component is this fo
cus on words and word structure. So much o
f what we've talked about, about the differen
t types of structures that could be formed, th
e stress patterning of words, and the syllable
s that combine to form longer words at all, t
hat all is engulfed within this prosodic comp
onent.
And so this prosodic element can include the
word tier, the foot tier, so we're kind of start
ing broad. The word tier, the foot tier, the sy
llable tier, the onset rhyme tier, the skeletal t
ier, and the segmental tier. And that become
s really clear when we're looking at this fram
ework.
So if we just look at the word birthday, the
word is at the top. That's the word tier. And t
hese syllables, the word can be broken down
into two syllables, birth day. It's a strongweak production, which means it's trochaic,
and these two syllables combine to form one
foot.
If we take each syllable, we can break that s
yllable down into the onset, peak, coda, and
rime in first syllable, and the onset and rime
in the second, because, of course, there's no
coda in that second syllable. But you can see
here, what we mean by a hierarchical struct
ure is that there is a hierarchy that's shown h
ere from the word tier, all the way down to t
he segment tier, or the sound level.
Now, the segmental component dissects that
segmental tier. And here there's a focus on s
egments and the features that comprise them
. So when we think about linear phonology,
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Now, the segmental component dissects that
segmental tier. And here there's a focus on s
egments and the features that comprise them
. So when we think about linear phonology,
which is so much of what we've done alread
y, there is a focus on the sound level by itsel
f, and how sounds are strung together. We c
an dissect that further in nonlinear phonolog
y by not just focusing on a segment, but by a
lso focusing on the features that make up seg
ments. Think of all those sounds that you've
looked at and the distinctive features that are
linked to each sound individually.
And so the focus on the feature can include t
he root node, the laryngeal node, and the pla
ce node, these three nodes that all come toge
ther in this structure. And so if we come bac
k to this hierarchical structure, we're now go
ing to take, or we could now look at, each in
dividual segment and identify all the feature
s that are associated with those particular so
unds.
So if we think of the two main tiers, we first
have the prosodic and segmental, and we bre
ak down that segmental tier. We're first disc
ussing the root node. And the root node ties t
o manner of production. So we use the term
sonorant and consonantal to those features to
discuss what's happening at the root node.
We can define a segment as a
vowel or glide, or as a consonant.
Vowel glides will be sonorant and consonant
s will be plus consonantal. We can also use
other terms to distinguish phonemes here, li
ke continuant, nasal, lateral. You're familiar
with these terms, and these are all terms that
will help us define the class of phoneme, but
more specifically, the manner of production
, and that happens at the root node.
At the laryngeal node is where we make the
distinction about voicing. And so we talk ab
out voice and the spread glottis features, and
this distinguishes voiceless from voice cons
onants. It also distinguishes vowels from voi
celess consonants. And so this laryngeal nod
e is sort of independent-- it's autonomous, bu
t it links to that root node, as well as the plac
e node, which we'll discuss now.
In terms of the place node, that's where we d
escribe the place of articulation. And so we c
an talk about sounds made at the level of the
lips, which will be plus labial, they could be
plus round, and they could be plus labiodent
al, plus or minus We also comment on soun
ds that are made with the tongue tip that coul
d involve the coronal feature, the anterior, di
stributed, and grooved feature, as well as sou
nds that are made with the tongue body, whi
ch can involve dorsal, back, high and low. A
nd so that place node includes features that r
elate to place of articulation.
So just to review, the root node involves feat
ures that relate to manner of articulation. Th
e laryngeal node encompasses features that r
elate to voicing. And the place node encomp
asses features that relate to place of articulati
on.
Week 6 Page 5
ures that relate to manner of articulation. Th
e laryngeal node encompasses features that r
elate to voicing. And the place node encomp
asses features that relate to place of articulati
on.
How do we use all of this? Well, within a no
nlinear phonology framework, we
are interested in the interaction between seg
mental and suprasegmental components of s
peech. The whole point here is that it's differ
ent from taking a pure phonological approac
h. And a nonlinear phonology approach vie
ws development as additive, meaning it's loo
king at what kinds of features can be added t
o the system.
That differs from a phonological process app
roach where there's this negative progression
. We're constantly talking about what the chi
ld is not doing, and what the child doesn't ha
ve in relation to the adult form. The other be
nefit here is that the assessment includes ana
lysis of both segmental and suprasegmental
components and their interaction.
We can't just only be thinking about sound p
roduction. We need to look at sounds in grea
ter depth, and in relation to the suprasegmen
tal components, meaning how do sounds rel
ate to the syllables in which they're produce
d, the stress patterns in which they're produc
ed, and the word length, meaning the numbe
r of syllables in a word. And so understandin
g this is critical to treatment planning, becau
se there's one main component to think abou
t in terms of treatment planning, and that is
we focus on new segments in established syl
lable shapes and stress patterns.
Alternatively, we focus on established segm
ents in new syllable shape and stress pattern
s, meaning that we need to address segmenta
l and suprasegmental components of speech
in treatment. We're not going to take new se
gments and throw them into a new word stru
cture. We facilitate new segments using an e
xisting structure, and we facilitate a new stru
cture using existing segments. And that'll get
clearer and clearer as we move through the
course, and especially as we move closer to
goal planning.
1.11 Suprasegmental Features
properties of speech sounds that appear
simultaneously with phonetic (segmental)
features; add to the richness of speech
production
○ intonation:
▪ changes in fundamental
frequency/ pitch
○ stress: emphasis
▪ intensity
▪ duration
▪ fundamental frequency
○ timing: changes in duration of
linguistic units in words can change
meaning
▪ juncture (essentially pauses/
spoken punctuation)
speaking rate
Week 6 Page 6
linguistic units in words can change
meaning
▪ juncture (essentially pauses/
spoken punctuation)
○ speaking rate
stress patterning: words we produce include
strong and weak components
○ trochaic: strong-weak (sw)
▪ “puppy” /’pʌ.pi/
▪ “wagon” /’wӕ.gɪn/
○ iambic: weak-strong (ws)
▪ “about” /ə.’baʊt/
▪ “decide” /də.’sid/
So this next section is on feature geometry a
nd, basically, how to take a segment-- meani
ng a sound-- and dissect it into its componen
t features. And that will provide a framewor
k from which we can begin to look at the rel
ationship between features in sounds and in
words. So as a reminder, segments are a bun
dle of features.
And we can take those bundle of features an
d represent them in a framework. And you'll
see that in a moment. And within that frame
work, there are several different nodes. And
those nodes dominate other features.
So we'll see how there is actually this link be
tween different levels. There are higherlevel features and lowerlevel features. They can all exist in these sep
arate nodes. But they're linked together thro
ugh these association lines.
So let's look at a feature geometry for the En
glish system. And what you can see here at t
he top is the root node. And think about the r
oot node as your manner of articulation, in t
hat the features that are shown here all relate
to manner of production, consonantal right
here, plus nasal, plus continuant, and plus so
norant. And I want to highlight how the use
of the plus sign, you recall, indicates that tha
t feature is present for this particular phonem
e that's being shown here. So everything sho
wn here is shown as plus that given feature.
But if the phoneme were lacking that feature
, you would indicate that as minus. So for in
stance, if this were a T, T does not have the
continuant feature. And we would represent
that by minus continuant.
Right below that is the place node. And as th
e name suggests, this relates to place of artic
ulation right here. And you'll see that all of t
he arms coming off of place refer to some pl
ace of articulation, labial node where the pla
ce is around the lips, coronal node where pla
ce is at or around the alveolar ridge, and dor
sal, which is further back.
And then lastly, the laryngeal node purely re
lates to voicing. And that's shown right here.
And we'll go through some of the details of
what some of these specific features like spr
ead glottis mean in just a moment.
But first, why are we going to all this trouble
? Why this level of detail for something that
seems like we can look at a broader level?
Week 6 Page 7
ead glottis mean in just a moment.
But first, why are we going to all this trouble
? Why this level of detail for something that
seems like we can look at a broader level?
Well, the traditional phonetic categories that
you have learned and understand don't really
capture the intricate similarity and differenc
es between sounds. Remember, a sound can
be broken up into these component features.
And therefore, we can use these features to h
elp us distinguish between sounds.
So for instance, fricatives and glides are bot
h continuous to some extent. But they differ
with respect to several features that compris
e them. And so these components illustrate
motor aspects of producing each sound.
So let's start with the root node. And you can
kind of on your own go back and forth to th
e diagram that you just saw. We'll talk about
these five components, sonorant, consonant
al, continuant, nasal and lateral.
When we talk about sonorant, that particular
feature, that refers to when pressure above t
he larynx allows the vocal folds to vibrate co
ntinuously without a rise
in pressure above the larynx. So there's a pre
tty open vocal tract. And vowels, glides, liqu
ids and nasals will all be plus sonorant.
In contrast, when a sound has the consonant
al feature, there's a narrow constriction some
where, either in the oral or in the pharyngeal
cavity. And that's going to impede airflow.
So as you would expect, plosive of phoneme
s will be plus continuant along with several
other phonemes-- sorry, plus consonantal.
Plus continuant involves continuing air flow.
There isn't an abrupt closure, as there will b
e for a plosive. But they'll be continuing airfl
ow. So sound is produced with that continuo
us airflow moving through the old cavity. A
nd so fricatives, such as /s/ and /z/, would be
plus continuant.
Nasals are relatively straightforward, becaus
e all nasal phonemes are going to be plus nas
al. And you'll recall that this involves sound
resonating through the oral the nasal cavities
for /m/, /n/ and /ng/. And the lateral feature
reflects what happens when air is blocked in
the
oral cavity but directed over the sides of the
tongue. So /l/ would be plus lateral.
Now just as a reminder, these features relate
to manner of articulation, the manner in whi
ch sound is being produced. Now at the lary
ngeal node, most basically, this relates to voi
cing. And voicing can either be present or ab
sent. And that's very straightforward.
There are a few intricate details that I'll revie
w. But you'll be responsible mostly for just t
hinking about the laryngeal node, in terms of
plus or minus voicing. But for your own inf
ormation, we have two other terms to review
. One is spread glottis, which is when sound
is produced with the vocal folds spread wide
ly leading to lowamplitude noise. And so the example here, t
hat voiceless aspirated stop, and voices fricat
Week 6 Page 8
is produced with the vocal folds spread wide
ly leading to lowamplitude noise. And so the example here, t
hat voiceless aspirated stop, and voices fricat
ives are examples of sounds that are spread
glottis or plus spread glottis.
Constricted glottis occurs when sounds are p
roduced when the vocal folds are pulled clos
ely together. And regular periodic vibration i
s not really possible because of that, such as
when a glottal sound is produced. So these a
re some finer details. But you'll be responsib
le for the broader voice versus voiceless disti
nction.
And then lastly, the last node is the place no
de. It's extremely straightforward, because it
relates to place of articulation. But let's look
at that in relation to where the lips and tongu
e are.
So in terms of the lips, we have three feature
s we want to highlight. And that is plus labia
l, because it involves one or both lips, plus r
ound-- so a sound is going to be plus round
when there is lip protrusion, like for a round
ed vowel-- and labial dental. So an example
this would be when one lip is involved, but t
he lips and the teeth are also involved, as in /
f/.
Now place of articulation, of course, is likel
y to also involve the tongue. And this can be
the tongue tip and the tongue body. So for t
ongue tip sounds, we use the term coronal to
indicate when the tongue tip or blade is rais
ed.
The anterior is used to indicate when a coron
al sound is made at the alveolar bridge or far
ther forward, really any sound that's made an
teriorly in the oral cavity. Distributed refers t
o a coronal sound made with wide areas of c
ontact between the tongue tip and the palate.
And then grooved are coronal sounds that ar
e made with a groove tongue. So you can se
e here that we're referring to sounds that are
all coronal, but with slightly different distinc
tions between them.
And then for tongue body, these are sounds t
hat are made that have some involvement of
the body of the tongue. And we often talk ab
out sounds being plus dorsal when they're pr
oduced with the back of the tongue body, su
ch as all the velars, and some vowels, meani
ng back vowels.
But we can use the terms back high and low.
Back refers to sounds produced with the bac
k of the tongue, either raised or lowered. An
d of course, all velars have the back of the to
ngue raised. High are sounds produced with
the tongue body raised. Low is the
tongue body is lowered. So the names really
do help you understand what type of positio
n we're looking at.
Week 6 Page 9
So back to this again, you can now see h
ow those descriptions really neatly categ
orize into either the root node, place nod
e or laryngeal node. And so as you're lea
rning these about these nodes and refinin
g your understanding of features, you wa
nt to come back to this image to help you
visualize how these nodes relate to one
another. Because they don't exist separat
ely.
And so to help make that point, let's take
a look at the features associated with the
words sit. And of course, the words sit h
as three phonemes involved, /s/, /I/ and /t
/. And if we were to simply just map out
all the features associated with it, it will
help us understand and learn those featur
es.
as three phonemes involved, /s/, /I/ and /t
/. And if we were to simply just map out
all the features associated with it, it will
help us understand and learn those featur
es.
So for example, S is plus consonantal. It'
s plus continuant. It's minus sonorant, mi
nus nasal, minus voice, plus spread glotti
s. I'm not going to include that in here-- j
ust for your own understanding. And the
n so that relates to manner, now voicing.
In terms of place, it's plus coronal, plus a
nterior. And we're running out of room, s
o we'll have to be creative here. And it's
minus distributed-- I'm just going to call
that d-- and plus grooved.
So the point here is that, as you get more
and more comfortable using these featur
es, you can highlight the more predomin
ant features and leave out others that you
don't need to. For example, you learn to
understand that, of course, /s/ is not nasal
and not sonorant. And you can just delet
e that from your description. But while y
ou're learning features, include them all a
t this point.
In terms of the vowel, the vowel is plus s
onorant, of course. Because all vowels ar
e plus sonorant. We're going to abbreviat
e here. It is plus continuant. It's minus te
nse-- because we start talking about tens
e versus lax, as we've discussed before in
relation to vowels-- plus voice-- and all
vowels are plus voice-- plus coronal and
plus dorsal.
And then lastly, we've got /t/. /t/ is plus c
onsonantal-- oops, little error there-- min
us continuant, minus sonorant-- of cours
e, because it's a plosive-- minus nasal, mi
nus voice, plus coronal, plus anterior, mi
nus distributed and minus grooved. Now
I realize that this is tedious. And it's a lot
to think of right now.
But the more you practice, the more you'
ll understand the different features. And t
hen you could simply highlight the key f
eatures that distinguish that particular ph
oneme from other phonemes. And you'll
see that as we go through the rest of mat
erial.
Week 6 Page 10
The next step in understanding a child's prod
uctions are thinking about the constraints an
d repairs that might be a part of their phonol
ogical system. Constraints are limitations of
the language interacting with segments in a
word. And so every language has these inher
ent limitations. They're limitations that perha
ps can guide us to not combine certain phon
emes that aren't allowable in our language. B
ut what often happens with children is that t
here can be these limitations that are specific
to their phonological system.
And so many times constraints occur when t
hey're too few or too many consonants in a
word. So the constraint is a limitation. The r
epair is the way in which a speaker adjusts p
ronunciation to accommodate those limitatio
ns. It's the fix. It's what the speaker is going
to do. So we're going to go through a variety
of different constraint and repair scenarios.
The first is related to syllable production. So
let's suppose that the child's constraint is tha
t all syllables require an onset. So that mean
s that all syllables must have a sound at the b
eginning of that syllable.
But the target word challenge is that there ar
e too few consonants in the word. Well, how
could a child repair this problem? They coul
d insert a consonant. Maybe they would dele
te a vowel. Or maybe they would eliminate a
boundary. And so if we think about that, tha
t might really underlie how a child might be
altering syllables in order to-- or repair sylla
bles in order to meet this constraint. And I'll
show you an example of that in a moment.
Another constraint is that all consonants mus
t be in a syllable. And the problem here is th
at there are too many consonants. So if there
are too many consonants, like for instance if
there's a cluster, for every consonant to be i
n a syllable, what will a child do? Well, they
're simply going to delete a consonant or ins
ert a vowel. So here are a few examples.
If a child is producing a syllable in a word th
at has a syllable without an onset, and if they
Week 6 Page 11
're simply going to delete a consonant or ins
ert a vowel. So here are a few examples.
If a child is producing a syllable in a word th
at has a syllable without an onset, and if they
're not allowed to do that, well they're going
to insert a consonant in there. So apple migh
t become dapu. That initial syllable did not h
ave an onset, the child added the d to give it
an onset. What a child also can do is add-- a
nother example of adding a consonant would
be instead of apple producing papu.
So there are different variations of how this
can look, but either way we're inserting som
e element to repair that constraint. Now, bac
k to the example of when every consonant h
ad to be in a syllable, let's think of the word
stay, where there's one syllable, but two con
sonants. So the repair would be that the chil
d would either delete one of those consonant
s and likely reduce the cluster to produce ta,
or maybe insert a vowel and form an additio
nal syllable as in sutay, where we inserted th
at-- we inserted that schwa in there.
Let's look at constraints and repairs related t
o stress. So if every foot must be strong wea
k, and let's say that the target word challenge
is that there are too few syllables for a foot.
What might happen? Well, the child might i
nsert a vowel to add an additional syllable.
An additional constraint or additional way to
repair, if every word must be strong weak a
nd there are too many syllables for a foot, th
e child might then delete the syllable or mak
e a weak syllable strong, as in a word then b
ecoming from strong weak becoming strong
strong.
And so if we look at this example, if every f
oot must be strong weak, but we have a wor
d like banana where there are more than two
syllables in that word, then one way a child
might reduce that word is to simply drop one
of the syllables resulting in that strong weak
form that is preferred.
Now, constraints and repairs can also be see
n in relation to word length. So if only one f
oot is allowed, that's the constraint, the targe
t word challenge could be that there are too
many feet. And so how would a child repair
this issue? They might delete one foot, or m
ake one foot unstressed. So to see how this
would play out, if only one foot is allowed, t
he child could delete a foot as in hibernation
becoming nation. Hibernation has two feet a
s we saw in a prior slide, hiber nation. But n
ation has one foot and it's strong weak.
And then we could have constraints and repa
irs related to timing units. So let's suppose th
at the child's constraint is that the maximal f
oot has two timing units. But the target word
challenge is that there are too few timing un
its in the word. What could the child do? We
ll, to repair this issue they might then insert
a timing unit. And if we think about what we
've learned before, how to insert a timing uni
t, they could alter the vowel by making it a d
iphthong or making it a longer vowel.
Another way that we see a change in timing
Week 6 Page 12
a timing unit. And if we think about what we
've learned before, how to insert a timing uni
t, they could alter the vowel by making it a d
iphthong or making it a longer vowel.
Another way that we see a change in timing
units is when the stress syllable should be he
avy, that's the child's constraint. In that case,
the target word challenge could also be that
there are too few timing units. So what coul
d the repair be? The repair might be lengthe
n the vowel or maybe lengthen a consonant.
And quite honestly the repair can also be cha
nge the vowel type. Make the vowel diphtho
ng or make it a longer-- make it a long vowe
l, not just prolonging that vowel.
So these are a variety of ways in which child
ren have limitations and they repair their pro
ductions, they alter their productions, to acc
ount for that limitation. And that limitation c
an be at many different levels. It
could be at the syllable level. It
could address stress patterning. It could addr
ess timing units and so on.
Week 6 Page 13
Week 6 Page 14
So now we're going to discuss constraints
. And if you recall from our prior discussi
on, constraints relate to limitations on the
child's phonological system. And then the
Week 6 Page 15
So now we're going to discuss constraints
. And if you recall from our prior discussi
on, constraints relate to limitations on the
child's phonological system. And then the
repair is how the child addresses that lim
itation. So basic constraints can take four
forms. A child can delete an existing ele
ment. And as you'll see, when a child doe
s that, they're deleting all the features that
go along with that element, with that sou
nd.
Now speakers can also insert a new eleme
nt and completely insert a new sound and
all of the features that go along with that s
ound. But in addition to deleting and inse
rting, speakers can spread and delink feat
ures. So when we spread a feature, we're
adding an association line from one place,
meaning from one sound or from one pla
ce where that feature exists, to another pl
ace.
And it sounds familiar probably because i
t's a lot like assimilation. It's really featur
e spreading. And lastly, in terms of delink
ing, a segment might continue to exist. A
sound
might continue to be there, but one comp
onent of it is removed. And so that featur
e associated to that component is delinke
d. And you'll see this in the examples that
I'm going to show you.
So when we think about feature linking, it
really is a repair process. And children, a
gain, are trying to come up with a way to
compensate for the limitation in their syst
em. And so children can delete features.
Those features can end up in a different p
lace in the word. So maybe the nasal feat
ure that was attached to a given consonan
t at the end of the word might now be link
ed to the vowel or it might now be linked
to another consonant in the word. That's h
ow features end up in a different place.
But a new segment can also be inserted, a
s I mentioned earlier, and that can provid
e a new place for some of these features t
hat have nowhere else to go to link up. A
nd so ultimately, you're going to begin wi
th your transcription of what the word wa
s, the intended form, then the child's prod
uction to understand that. And so when
we think of new segments being inserted,
epenthesis really nicely reflects that, wher
e a new segment is added in that could be
a schwa, could be a th. And then features
associated with that segment will then ap
pear.
So let's talk about feature spreading. Whe
n feature spreading occurs, we'll add an a
ssociation line to reflect that between two
elements. And as I mentioned before, tha
t really is similar to assimilation. So when
we identify that a child is using some for
m of assimilation, we could then think, O
K, I believe they're using assimilation. W
hat feature is being spread, where did it c
ome from, and where is it moving to?
Week 6 Page 16
m of assimilation, we could then think, O
K, I believe they're using assimilation. W
hat feature is being spread, where did it c
ome from, and where is it moving to?
And you could illustrate that using an ass
ociation line. That line isn't a solid line. It
will be shown as a dashed line. And then
we could describe the direction of the spr
eading. Does spreading occur rightward, l
eftward, right? Sounds very familiar beca
use it sounds like progressive and regressi
ve. Or is it bidirectional? Is that feature sp
reading perhaps from the middle of the w
ord to both the beginning and the end of t
he word?
So let's look at the feature geometry for d
uck. Now what I simply did here was take
each sound, identify whether it was a con
sonant or a vowel, and then kind of do a
mini feature geometry tree. And what you
'll notice here in my little feature geometr
y tree are only the key elements that are n
eeded to identify that phoneme.
For example, for /d/, we know /d/ is plus
consonantal. Yes, I know it's not continua
te, it's not nasal. I just left all
of that out. So it's plus consonantal, it's pl
us voice, and it's plus coronal, right? If w
e look at ah, ah is plus sonorant and it's pl
us dorsal. And /k/, really-- and again, I'm
highlighting the key components-- is plus
consonantal, minus voice, and plus dorsa
l.
So if this word
were changed in a variety of ways, how w
ould features be impacted? That's simply
what we're going to look at. So number o
ne, let's suppose we delete an element. An
d the child, rather than duck, produces da
h, very, very common sound error pattern
. Well what simply happens is that you're
going to lose the /k/, but you do lose all th
e features associated with /k/. Those featu
res don't show up anywhere else that they
weren't already. So that's pretty clear.
And I would illustrate that with a red line
slash through. And then highlight how thi
s child's constraint is that the coda is not a
llowed and the repair is that the child dele
tes the coda, right? So we're kind of bring
ing together all these terms that we've talk
ed about before. Now this seems familiar
to you because it's also consistent with th
e notion of final consonant deletion. And
it's OK for there to be overlaps or differen
t terms used to talk about very similar thi
ngs. And it's important for you to see thos
e connections. So that's pretty straightfor
ward.
The next pretty straightforward thing is if
we're inserting a new element. It just mea
ns add
a sound, and duck becomes duckem. You
might remember the postnasalization description from a prior lectu
re, where there was this child who would
insert nasals at the ends of words in order
Week 6 Page 17
a sound, and duck becomes duckem. You
might remember the postnasalization description from a prior lectu
re, where there was this child who would
insert nasals at the ends of words in order
to facilitate accurate production.
Well, let's suppose that's what this child is
doing. And in doing so, inserting a new e
lement, that simply means that along with
inserting a new element, the child's insert
ing all of the features that are associated
with /m/. And there's
some pretty different features that are ass
ociated with /m/, namely that we're addin
g this sonorant
This phoneme that is +sonorant, +nasal, i
nto all of these other-- combined with all
of these other sounds.
Now, we see a lot of sound substitutions i
n children, and when children are substitu
ting, we can look at that substitution and t
ry to understand the way that features mig
ht be spreading. So "duck" becoming "gu
ck" is a very, very common substitution.
Think back to the old terms we were usin
g. We would describe that, perhaps, as ba
cking. When D becomes G, you're movin
g back in the oral cavity.
But how do we describe that in relation to
features? And think about that for a mom
ent. What feature is moving around here?
What feature is moving, possibly, from K
to the front of the word?
And the feature that's moving is the dorsa
l feature. So D is coronal. K is dorsal. No
w, these phonemes differ. D
and K differ with respect to place of artic
ulation, and they only differ with respect t
o voicing.
But D was already voiced, so the only thi
ng changing here is spread of the dorsal f
eature, which changes the place of articul
ation. And we're going to add that associa
tion line.
And then, lastly, if we're delinking a featu
re, that means that we're taking a feature a
way. Sound doesn't leave. We're taking a
feature away that doesn't appear elsewher
e.
And, in this case, "duck" becomes "buck,
" and we're simply delinking that coronal
feature. And we're taking away this dorsal
feature. We might show that with a little
dashed line right there.
But that's not all that happens. There's on
e more piece that does happen, and that is
that we add the labial feature. So we are
getting rid of the coronal feature, and we'
ve added a labial feature.
But you'll notice that so many of the other
features remain the same. This is a sound
that's still +consonantal, still +voice. So t
his is a really nice, clear example of how
we could-- or some nice, clear-- four nice,
clear examples of how these features can
be shifted around in different ways.
Now let's look at that together in a
Week 6 Page 18
we could-- or some nice, clear-- four nice,
clear examples of how these features can
be shifted around in different ways.
Now let's look at that together in a
slightly different way. Let's take the word
"want," and let's suppose that the child m
akes a lot of sound changes and comes up
with the word "paba."
So, first and foremost, a few things happe
n. We lose the nasal. And, if you recall, w
e lose the nasal, and we lose all the featur
es associated with that nasal feature. So t
hat's gone.
We inserted an element, a/, and we have a
dded all the features that are associated w
ith that element. And so we know that a/ i
s +sonorant. It's a back vowel and so on.
So there are features that will be added th
ere.
What about the rest? Well, W. W is-- and
here we go again with the writing-- let's l
ook at this-- consonantal, +sonorant, +continuant, nasal, lateral, +voice, and +labial. And what we
know is that W turns into a P.
So what happens there? Well, we lose the
continuant feature. This is going to be continuant now. We lose the sonorant feat
ure. So these features are all delinked fro
m that W.
So we lose the continuant feature. We los
e the sonorant feature. But all else stays t
he same except for-- we're going to lose t
he voicing feature.
But P is still +labial. It's still -nasal and lateral. And this will change to be +conso
nantal. It's a little intricate, but I think you
're getting the point because we're just goi
ng to look at one feature at a time and ho
w it changes from one thing to something
else.
So what else happens here? Vowel a/ stay
s the same. But then, we have this shift, w
here T becomes B. And two things happe
n there, and that is that voicing is going to
change.
So we're not going to go through all the fe
atures for T right now. But for T to beco
me B, we have a few different things. The
manner of articulation stays the same, bu
t in order for-- but we see changes in
voicing and changes in place. So we're go
ing to be adding the labial feature, removi
ng the coronal feature, and adding voice.
And so, interestingly, you might say, well
, where did all
of that come from. The labial feature coul
d
have been spread from the initial P, and t
he voicing feature may have been spread
from the vowel. Or, it
even could have been spread from the N i
n want before the N was dropped.
The point is this can get more and more c
omplex-- is really to just look for the sim
ple changes that shift over time as one so
Week 6 Page 19
n want before the N was dropped.
The point is this can get more and more c
omplex-- is really to just look for the sim
ple changes that shift over time as one so
und is transformed into another or as soun
ds are deleted or added within this frame
work.
So our focus up
until now has been to look at some of the
feature constraints that could be operating
. But what gets even more interesting to t
hink about is how features relate to segm
ents-- features, segments-- as well as the
prosodic aspect of the word.
And where, perhaps, certain features mig
ht exist in the child's phonological system
but maybe they can't be combined with o
ther features. Or maybe they can't exist in
a certain framework, like they can't exist
at the end of the word. Or that feature can
't exist in an unstressed syllable but can
exist in a stressed syllable, as we often se
e. So let's look at that a little more closely
.
First, we want to get a sense of whether t
he problem is at the level of the feature or
the level of the segment. And so you hav
e to consider that link between features a
nd sounds with word structure, word leng
th, and stress.
You'll see that I keep coming back to usin
g the term prosodic or super segmental.
When I use that term, I'm clustering toget
her word structure, word length and stress
. That's a really important point because
we're going to come back to it over and o
ver again.
So how do features relate to word structur
e, word length, and stress? Here are a cou
ple of examples. You might question, is a
Week 6 Page 20
So some specific types of constraints--
ver again.
So how do features relate to word structur
e, word length, and stress? Here are a cou
ple of examples. You might question, is a
feature produced in certain word position
s? Well, that link between the feature and
the word position is a link between featur
es and word structure.
You might question, is a feature produced
at the onset of a CV syllable? Well, that
also relates to word structure because it's
at the beginning of the word. Is a feature
produced only in singlesyllable words? We often see this in child
ren because they have a hard time with an
increasing word length. And so that's the
link between the feature and word length
if we're only seeing that feature in singlesyllable words.
And then lastly, is the feature produced o
nly in stressed syllables, as we do someti
mes see, but not in unstressed syllable? A
nd that also illustrates the link between fe
atures and stress pattern.
What sound is a continuant in the coronal position? Well, two possibilities are
S and Z. And so if a child can't produce an F-if the child can't produce continuant and coronal together, what are some possib
le repairs? What are some possible fixes for that issue?
One could be that the child simply moves that articulation to a different place a
nd maybe produces a different kind of fricative in a different place-- maybe an
H, which is very far back in the vocal tract. Or perhaps the child just simply sto
ps the sound and ends up with a T or a
D-- so maintains coronal but gets rid of the continuant feature.
Week 6 Page 21
So some specific types of constraints-we could have individual feature constr
aints. And that simply means that a feat
ure isn't possible in a child's system. An
d so young children, sometimes we see t
hat they cannot produce continuance or
maybe that they cannot produce velar co
nsonants. And if that's the case, you're n
ot going to see any phonemes that are pl
us continuant or plus dorsal-- at least co
nsonants that are plus dorsal-- in their s
ystem.
Now, to make that a little more complex
, children can also have feature combina
tion constraints. And this simply means
that two features might not be possible i
n the same segment, even though they c
ould have been possible alone. So for in
stance, a child can produce the continua
nt in F and the coronal in T and D.
So if the child produces F and produces
T and
D, we'll say they have the continuant fea
ture. And they've got the coronal feature
. But then you notice that they don't pro
duce a continuant in the coronal positio
n. So first, think for a moment about wh
at sound could be effected.
What sound is a continuant in the coron
al position? Well, two possibilities are S
and Z. And so if a child can't produce a
n F-- if the child can't produce continua
nt and coronal together, what are some
possible repairs? What are some possibl
e fixes for that issue?
One could be that the child simply mov
es that articulation to a different place a
nd maybe produces a different kind of fr
icative in a different place-- maybe an H
, which is very far back in the vocal trac
t. Or perhaps the child just simply stops
the sound and ends up with a T or a
D-- so maintains coronal but gets rid of
the continuant feature.
That example nicely illustrates one thin
g and that is that, when we talk about ph
onological processes, we identify a patte
rn. But what's missing is the understandi
ng of, well, why might this pattern occu
r? So the child who's stopping-- the repa
ir I just explained to you was an exampl
e of the stopping.
And if we only thought about it from a
phonological process point of view, you
might not dive into why the child
is stopping. But if you could understand
this feature combination constraint, you
'd realize that the child's stopping becau
se they can't combine continuance and c
oronal place of articulation together in o
ne feature.
So we use the terms Faithfulness and Re
pair. Faithfulness is when a child was pr
oronal place of articulation together in o
ne feature.
So we use the terms Faithfulness and Re
pair. Faithfulness is when a child was pr
oducing the word as close as possible to
the adult form. If a child deletes segme
nts, they're moving way far away from t
hat. It's less faithful. Substitutions or err
ors-- they're a little more faithful than, s
ay, completely getting rid of a segment.
The last point here is that when we thin
k about feature combination constraints,
there are a variety of things that could h
appen, a variety of options. One feature
can be deleted, and then those two or m
ore features wouldn't be combined. That
's the example I gave you earlier with co
ntinuant and coronal.
One feature can also be moved to anoth
er segment in a word. So there could be
feature spreading, which is so interestin
g because the child's trying to hold on to
those two features but not combining th
em into one sound. So let's look at just a
few examples.
If "gate" were problematic for the child
and perhaps this child could not have th
e dorsal feature and the coronal feature i
n the same word, at least at this example
, we might say they'll drop one. And the
child will drop the dorsal feature and en
d up with "ate." Another possibility wou
ld be, rather than just getting rid of the
whole segment, keep parts of it and just
lose the dorsal element. And we end up
with "date."
Now, the next example isn't exactly a do
rsal and
a coronal together. But we just see how
perhaps the child can't use dorsal plus v
oice together and remove the voicing, a
nd "gate" becomes "Kate."
And then finally, the child can insert a s
chwa at the end of the word. And that m
ight be an option to move away from w
hatever that constraint was. So the point
here is there could be really a variety of
different ways children can overcome a
constraint that involves combining diff
erent features.
Week 6 Page 22
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Printout
Monday, March 1, 2021
8:21 PM
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When is syllable peak NOT a vowel?
- Liquids that act as vowels ex. "table"= syllabic "l" or nasal "button"
MIDTERM:
-feature geometry TERMS
-constraint ON midterm
-sequence constraints NOT on midterm
-here's the constraint, what's the repair?
Week 6 Page 25
Printout
Monday, March 1, 2021
8:21 PM
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1. Prevocalic voicing =bich
2. Deaffrication= bit
1. Backing sish
2. Depalatalization sip
1. Cluster reduction= kaesh
2. Prevocalic voicing= gaesh
3. Depalatalization= gaes
1. Cluster reduction bot
2. Labial assimilation bop
3. Postvocalic devoicing pop
1. Cluster reduction fais
2. Prevocalic voicing vais
3. Labial assimilation vaib
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Stress Rules
Monday, March 1, 2021
8:21 PM
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Friday, March 5, 2021
5:33 PM
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sSww
swSww
Sws
Swsw
swSw
Swsw
Swsw
Swsw
Ssw
Ss
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Printout
Friday, March 5, 2021
6:01 PM
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Repair: cluster reduction =/kate/
Repair: add onset AKA EPENTHESIS= /bivy/
Repair: final consonant deletion= /ma/
Repair: cluster reduction= /wet/
N/a
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Printout
Friday, March 5, 2021
6:00 PM
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sSw
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Printout
Friday, March 5, 2021
5:59 PM
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Printout
Sunday, March 7, 2021
7:22 PM
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Printout
Sunday, January 10, 2021
6:13 PM
So now we're going to
get into some fun analysis. And we will loo
k at how segments are sequenced in a word
and some of the difficulty that a speaker m
ight have in doing-- in performing that seq
uence. But first, let's
think about why we're even talking about s
equence constraints.
So we know that children are quite variable
in their productions. Children very even w
ithin themselves, and children very when c
ompared to one another. So it's common to
see that children being able to produce a ph
oneme perhaps in isolation or in a certain c
ontext, but not in some other kind of seque
nce or with another phoneme. This is very,
very common in development.
And so it doesn't really come to our attenti
on until a child has a speech
sound disorder, and we need to try to figur
e out why they can produce
sounds some of the time but perhaps not ot
hers. Within that same line of thinking, onc
e in treatment, children seem to be able to-or many children can acquire a sound reall
y easily in some contexts, but you're strugg
ling to get that sound in other contexts.
So this can happen when-- this leads us to l
ook at when phonemes-- maybe there's an i
ssue when phonemes are
right next to each other, or maybe there's s
ome kind of an issue with phonemes that ar
e separated by other phonemes in the way t
hey influence each other. Importantly, both
consonants and vowels could be impacted.
In our field, all too often clinicians put too
much emphasis on consonant production a
nd not enough emphasis on vowels, probab
ly because vowels are more likely to be pro
duced accurately and are mastered earlier t
han consonants. Nonetheless, they can be a
source of problem.
Now, taking a step back, the notion of cons
traints, we see this in adult speech. So in E
nglish for instance, there are certain constr
aints that are inherent to the language. And
so we see that because there are certain wo
rds, certain sounds, certain sequences, that
we just don't see in the adult system becaus
e they're not phonologically legal.
So for example, KT together cannot exist at the beginning of
a word in English. So that's a limitation, a c
onstraint, that's inherent in the language. A
nd we see that in that there are no words th
at begin with KT. So in child's speech, there can be constr
aints involving sequences that are possible
in the adult speech. So these are sequences
that are phonologically legal, but the child
just isn't getting it.
And that can involve consonants, and it ca
n involve vowels, and it also can involve fe
atures associated with constants and vowel
s. So constraints can occur on how features
are sequenced. And this simply means that
perhaps features can exist in the child's sys
tem, but can't exist together in a word. Mea
ning-- and you'll see a few examples of this
to come-- they can't exist when one sound
has one feature and another sound has a dif
ferent feature, and those features happen to
Week 7 Page 1
perhaps features can exist in the child's sys
tem, but can't exist together in a word. Mea
ning-- and you'll see a few examples of this
to come-- they can't exist when one sound
has one feature and another sound has a dif
ferent feature, and those features happen to
be separated by a vowel. That may not be
possible.
Similarly, both features may not be possibl
e within one sound. Now, the impact of co
nstraints is that there's link to the-- in terms
of place of articulation or motoric ease, so
me of these difficulties are driven by motor
issues. Meaning that, in some children, mo
ving around from one sound to another furt
her-- moving around in the
oral cavity from one sound to another, whe
n there's a lot of movement involved, is jus
t simply problematic.
And so for example, if we thought of etk, t
hat sequence is really complex because t an
d k are adjacent, but they're so far apart fro
m each other within the oral cavity. T is an
terior. K is dorsal. But that might be possib
le when separated by a vowel, as in take, si
mply because the child has time to move fr
om one point to another.
So our goal right now is to try to figure out
why a particular sound is produced a certa
in way, perhaps why it's dropped, or maybe
even why a sound is added to a word. And
in order to do that, we need to look at the
phonemic environment. So that will involv
e us looking at a range of different repairer
s, where we try to understand what underli
es the kind of sound changes that a child's
producing.
So now we're going to look at the range of di
fferent repairs that a child can use to, to avoi
d a difficult sequence, or to avoid some kind
of a limitation.
So let's look at a really common one. And w
e've come to this before in our examples, cor
onal and dorsal. From a motoric perspective,
that combination can simply be difficult bec
ause children are moving from the front of t
he mouth, the anterior coronal position, to th
e back of the mouth, the dorsal position. An
d so a word like take could pose a problem if
that's a hard sequence for a child.
What could happen? Well step one, child mi
ght want to make both phonemes more simil
ar. And so take could become cake. Now in t
hat case, what is the child doing? They're spr
eading the dorsal feature. Where coronal is
moved to dorsal, t becomes k. Right? And y
ou can see how that is similar to the way we'
ve talked about assimilation. It's velar assimi
lation That's all, it's OK to use that term, but
just to realize that there is feature spreading,
and perhaps velar assimilation occurred beca
use a coronal and a velar can't exist together.
Now, a child, a different child, might do so
mething different to repair that difficult sequ
ence. And maybe they'll just say, I'm droppi
ng one sound. They delete one segment. Of
course, that's not conscious, right? But to rep
air, they'll delete a segment. And when they
do so, they'll delete all the features associate
d with it. In this case, final word position is i
mpacted. Right? We lose that k. And we just
end up with tay.
Same difficult sequence but another possibil
ity. Child deletes a different phoneme, and t
his time the initial word position is impacted
. Right, where the t is dropped and we delete
that one segment, delete all the segments as
sociated with it so that there isn't that difficu
lt sequence to deal with anymore.
And then finally, we could reverse order of f
eatures. So it's possible that the k can come a
t the beginning of the word and then we lose
that t. And so child still maintains some of t
he word, but is avoiding that very difficult s
equence. So the coronal dorsal sequence is a
commonly, a sequence that's commonly diff
icult for children.
Week 7 Page 2
t the beginning of the word and then we lose
that t. And so child still maintains some of t
he word, but is avoiding that very difficult s
equence. So the coronal dorsal sequence is a
commonly, a sequence that's commonly diff
icult for children.
Labial dorsal can also be. So it could simply
be possible that the child can't produce word
s where the coronal, the labial and the dorsal
feature are combined in the same word. Not
in the same syllable, just in the same word.
And so p is the labial, right? And k is the dor
sal. And so what's happened in this example
is then cup becomes kuck. And the dorsal fe
ature spread, right, from the beginning to the
end. And that dorsal replaces the labial, gets
rid of the labial dorsal combination, because
now it's all dorsal.
Another alternative, this is similar to the seq
uence we just saw before, is final consonant
has dropped. All features associated with it a
re dropped. We see that. In this case, the fina
l
word position was impacted and the child en
ds up producing ka.
Another situation that could happen is that t
he initial segment and all of its features are d
eleted. And so cup could become come up.
And then lastly, we could have reverse order
of features. So cup can become puck. And i
n this case, yes, we do still have the features
in the word. But perhaps changing the seque
nce of the features makes it allowable. We al
so could then end up having something like
pa. Right? Features were reversed, but one
was dropped.
And so with that in mind, let's think about h
ow to repair some sequence constraints. And
let's suppose here that the child can't have th
e coronal and the labial together. Well, perh
aps then they will delete a segment. And the
n the new word might be so.
That child might also delete one feature. An
d so if coronal and labial is difficult, maybe t
he child will drop the labial feature. Since p
is a voiceless plosive, if a child is trying to
make that p more similar to an s, only makes
sense that the child would end up with sote.
Right, because what I did was I removed the
labial, I added the coronal, but I maintained
the manner and voicing of that phoneme. An
d I could reverse the order. So maybe I woul
d come up with something like pot and that
might work for this particular child.
Now interestingly as clinicians, you're often
in a position to try to understand why there's
variability in the use of features by a child. I
n this scenario, let's suppose that s is correct
in son but not in soap. So this combo is poss
ible, but this combo is not. How can
we begin to, and this kind of thing happens a
lot in children where there's inconsistency,
but they're sometimes getting it right. And w
e're so focused oftentimes on the errors that
we want to try to use the correct production
here to sort out part of this puzzle.
So s is, let's look at the features associated w
ith it to
try to understand the pattern. S is consonanta
l. It's plus coronal. It's plus continuant. Plus
anterior. Minus voice. And we also can use
plus strident. We do see that also in the litera
ture as a feature. Plus strident. We won't wor
ry about the vowels right now.
But let's look at the n. N is plus nasal. Plus s
onorant. Plus coronal. And plus voice.
Now, we already went through the features f
or s,
so I won't do that again. But let's try to figur
e out why can s be combined with n, but s ca
n't be combined with p.
So p is plus consonantal. It's plus labial. Plus
anterior. But it's missing a lot of, it's missin
g a number of other components. It isn't nasa
l. It isn't sonorant. It isn't coronal. Right? Th
ose are all clear features that are missing. An
d so what we're seeing here is that the child s
eems to be able to produce s in the presence
of another coronal sound if we think about p
lace, but can't produce s when it's in the pres
ence of a labial sound. And that simply coul
Week 7 Page 3
d so what we're seeing here is that the child s
eems to be able to produce s in the presence
of another coronal sound if we think about p
lace, but can't produce s when it's in the pres
ence of a labial sound. And that simply coul
d be the constraint that's operating in this chi
ld's system.
Now, one last point related to this slide. And
that is, if a pattern happens once, it doesn't a
lways raise our concern unless it's something
atypical. But what I would do is take this in
formation to explore other similar words a c
hild might be using to see if there is some co
nsistency in the, in the use of the pattern, wh
ich would then indicate that this is a sequenc
e constraint. So it can't just happen once to b
e a constraint.
So how would children repair these particula
r constraints? Let's think about this. So if the
re were labial assimilation occurring, we mi
ght say that the coronal becomes a labial. An
d if there were
labial assimilation and the coronal became a
labial, well it's possible that this could beco
me bope. There are a variety of options, but
this would be one. In velar assimilation, the
coronal becomes a velar because the velar is
spreading. So we're going to get rid of that t
and we maybe will have gouk.
In alveolar assimilation, the velar becomes a
n alveolar. Or rather, in alveolar assimilation
, sorry, the labial in this case is going to bec
ome an alveolar. The alveolar will spread. A
nd so he might have sote. And in nasal assim
ilation, that non nasal is going to become na
salized. And so they'll be spreading of the na
sal feature. And since that is a labial, we mig
ht end up with mom.
So it's great for you to think of these exercis
es and practice this. Because it helps you lin
k the knowledge you already have about assi
milation processes to the sequence constrain
ts and the use of features. Because they're all
intertwined.
So we're going to go further, what we're goi
ng to go next with this in the next segment is
that we're going to look at the range of the t
ype of sequence constraints. And so there ar
e four that we are going to cover. Because fe
ature spreading and feature changes can hap
pen in a variety of different ways. They can
happen in sounds that are next to each other
because they're in a cluster. This can occur b
etween consonants that are separated by a vo
wel. There could be spreading or something
going on between consonant and
vowels that are adjacent. As well as simply
between two vowels that happened to be sep
arated by a consonant.
So our discussion of sequence constraints is
going begin by talking about consonant clust
er sequences. And of course, sounds can real
ly influence each other when they're right ne
xt to each other, as in a cluster.
So we can examine consonant cluster sequen
ces in terms of their word position, whether t
hey're at the beginning of a word, at the end
of a word, or in the middle of a word. But we
can also dissect-- and we should also dissect
-- the segments that are contained in that clus
ter. Because if we're doing a feature analysis,
we can look at the features that are associate
d with each segment. And so limitations can
exist in a couple of different ways.
There could be a problem with the sequence
of consonants that are strung together. There
also could be a problem with the number of c
onsonants in a cluster. Recall that children al
so often simplify clusters simply by getting r
id of one member of a cluster, or more than o
ne member of a cluster, but keeping the other
elements intact.
So one thing to point out when we're looking
at wordmedial consonant sequences. A cluster can f
orm-- there could be an onset cluster, as in s
pot, or a coda cluster, as in jump. Don't be fo
oled by that affricate not being a cluster. It's
Week 7 Page 4
at wordmedial consonant sequences. A cluster can f
orm-- there could be an onset cluster, as in s
pot, or a coda cluster, as in jump. Don't be fo
oled by that affricate not being a cluster. It's
not a cluster. The cluster is at the end.
But one member of a cluster can serve as the
coda or the ending for one syllable, and the
other might serve as the onset for the next sy
llable in multisyllabic words. So these are purely examples
of how clusters can occur in the initial and fi
nal position. But medial position gets a little
more complicated.
And so in the word "doctor" that you're seein
g here, the KT cannot begin a syllable in Eng
lish. And so when we take a multisyllabic word and we break it down into syll
able, the syllable boundary-- our decisions a
bout where the syllable boundary is is driven
by what's phonologically legal in English.
And so I would not break this up as docter, simply because KT can't begin an onset.
So my point in highlighting this is just to re
mind us that medial consonant sequences ha
ve to be looked at really carefully to see whe
ther the sequence can stay together and is a tr
ue cluster, or whether one member belongs t
o one syllable and one member belongs to an
other.
Developmental patterns-- so why can cluster
s be tricky for kids? Well, we see clusters em
erging between two and three years of age. S
ome of the early clusters are word initial plos
ive glides, like P
and L together. We do see some word medial
or word final nasal stop clusters, like NT or
maybe MP.
And so as children's development of clusters
improves, that's shown through producing lo
nger sequences by stringing more sounds tog
ether and by those sequences being more and
more complex. And so that might include pr
oducing clusters that include r, and so on.
What are some common early patterns of red
uction? Well, early on, a child might attempt
a CC combination, reduce that to one conso
nant, or take a CCC and reduce it to two con
sonants. The longer the cluster, any reductio
n is completely plausible. But interestingly, t
here are times when kids can produce some c
lusters accurately and other clusters not accu
rately.
What seems particularly vulnerable in a clust
er? Well, liquids, glides, and fricatives are of
ten omitted. So if a child
is going to struggle with the CC cluster in pl
ay, they're more likely to delete the L, not th
e P, because the P is more simple more moto
rically. Similarly, spoon becoming boon-- ch
ild drops the S, voices the B. It would be mo
re unusual if the S were maintained over the
B, because the B is motorically simpler.
A few other things-- we often see substitutio
ns for one element later in development. So t
hat initial child who was producing play as p
ay develops a little further, and maybe that's
being shaped into a "pway", which is interest
ing. So there's still a
CC combination, but it's not the right combin
ation. Or there's now a new CC combination,
but it's not correct.
And green becoming glean is another examp
le. And another thing children can do to try t
o repair a problem producing a consonant clu
ster sequence is that they might use coalesce
nce. Recall that's when we're combining feat
ures of two sounds into one sound, such as p
erhaps sweater becoming-- instead the f, fett
er. Because the continuum component of the
S, the features of the S
and features of the W were paired together.
Or epenthesis where play becomes "puhway."
Now, children, in addition to reducing a sequ
ence, they can also try to keep an element be
cause it's more similar to another element in
the word. So I had said earlier that if a child
had a PLL sequence, they're likely to hold on
to the P because it's motorically easier. But
what also could happen is perhaps they'll hol
Week 7 Page 5
ence, they can also try to keep an element be
cause it's more similar to another element in
the word. So I had said earlier that if a child
had a PLL sequence, they're likely to hold on
to the P because it's motorically easier. But
what also could happen is perhaps they'll hol
d on
to the L in this case, because the L has the sa
me place of articulation as N.
And so if I were to see this atypical sequence
, I might then try to look further and say, wel
l, why could the child be doing this. Perhaps
it's because they're trying to keep two similar
phonemes in a word. And the other thing tha
t could happen is sometimes children have pr
oblems with a cluster, and to repair that issue
, move some things around in the word. So if
plan becomes nap, it's an interesting combin
ation, and movement is happening here wher
e we're losing the L and the other two phone
mes are changing position.
So what are some important areas to explore
? We've got to be looking at children's cluste
rs in their inventory. And if you remember w
hen we did the independent analysis and we
used a model
and replica chart, we plotted all our phoneme
s on that chart. And I highlighted how your c
lusters needed to be kept track of separately
off to the side, but by word position.
So I would want a list of all clusters produce
d at
the syllable initial word initial position, simil
arly a separate list for clusters produced at
the syllable initial word within position, and
so on. And we're then going to examine the f
eatures that are present in the members of ea
ch cluster, and this will give us a sense into t
he consonants that the child can sequence to
gether. So this really will give us an importa
nt insight into the motoric possibilities for th
e child and what seems to be working in thei
r phonological system.
Now, that's the independent analysis. Reme
mber, it's separate from-- we're not comparin
g to the adult model. We're simply looking at
what the child can do. But the next compone
nt is to look at the matches between the adult
form and the child's production.
And this means we need to go and look at ou
r relational analysis and look at the number o
f times the child's form matched the adult for
m and if there was any variation in that. Any
slight variation-- even a voicing error-- is co
nsidered a mismatch. And within that misma
tch, we want to figure out the features of pho
nemes that were supposed to be sequenced b
ut weren't, and then the pattern in which feat
ures were or
were not produced. So we're really going to-kind of like what we have done before, look
at the features in each phoneme of that cluste
r and try to understand how they relate to on
e another and whether there's some influence
by another sound in the word.
So what we also can do is look at frequently
produced clusters by the child. So maybe thi
s is a child who's got a couple of clusters the
y're producing. Maybe they're accurate. May
be not. But let's see what is possible in their s
ystem.
We also like to look at clusters maybe that w
ere produced once correctly and not other ti
mes correctly. And we would describe that
maybe those are emerging and they're comin
g in. We identify the clearly missing clusters,
clusters for which there's no evidence for, an
d then dissect the common patterns. And that
means which consonants are deleted, which
are substituted, and which are added, so like
an error analysis based on those clusters alon
e.
But you can see how clusters are their own t
hing. They're complex enough. Let's separate
them out from the inventory, pull them out o
f the speech sample from our relational analy
sis, and look at them. The positive is that ma
ny young children don't have a lot of clusters
. This gets more complicated as they get olde
r. And so with some of the young children, t
his analysis may not need to be as detailed if
Week 7 Page 6
Now, the impact to speaking conte
xt-- in all the analyses we do, we n
eed to do a contextual analysis. Si
mply put, that means comparing o
ur single word productions to conn
ected speech. Because it's really v
aluable if, for example, we were to
see that a child could produce a cl
uster of individual words, perhaps
on the test we administered, but ca
n't do that in connected speech.
It tells us that the cluster is motori
cally possible, that there's-- that th
e child's phonological system mig
ht allow for it, but not when the lin
guistic demands are high. And we
can also then look at imitative vers
us spontaneous production. Recall
our discussion of dynamic assess
ment-- getting in there, really seei
ng what you can push a child to do
. Maybe the child is giving you
no clusters on their own spontaneo
us productions. Well, let's see if th
ey can imitate clusters produced b
y you, and whether you can use so
me cuing to facilitate that.
And then lastly, looking at the ade
quacy of the sample-- are more utt
erances needed? Many times if we
only rely on maybe the child's co
nnected speech sample, there migh
t not be enough instances for them
to even produce clusters. Maybe t
he child happened to
not produce a lot of words with cl
usters. That would enable us to ma
ke a decision, and we'd have to obt
ain some more information.
sis, and look at them. The positive is that ma
ny young children don't have a lot of clusters
. This gets more complicated as they get olde
r. And so with some of the young children, t
his analysis may not need to be as detailed if
the child doesn't have a lot of phonemes to b
egin with.
OK. So we've talked about consonants that h
ave a difficult time being next to each other.
It's so critical to look at the impact of the pho
netic and the word context. Because it could
be that the problem isn't with those two soun
ds, but it's with maybe a different sound that'
s in the word that is hindering what's going o
n. Or
it could simply be that maybe that combinati
on is possible at the beginning of words, but
not at the end of words.
Let's now discuss the constraints that can o
ccur between consonants that are separated
by a vowel. These are not clusters. These ar
e consonants that are in words with a vowel
or two in between.
So the important point here is that consona
nts do not only influence each other when t
hey're next to each other. And so a problem
, a constraint with a consonant sequence ca
n occur. And we certainly do see this early
in acquisition. And so we would describe t
his as an impact on a noncontiguous sequence as shown here in red.
In can, that K and N
can influence each other, even though they'
re not right next to each other.
From a developmental standpoint, this coul
d be evident when there's variability betwe
en different words that include the same tar
get, but with different consonants. And we'
re back to the variability part. Sometimes k
ids can produce the sounds, sometimes they
can't. So it could be that T is accurate in, f
or instance, top, but not take. And so the ch
ild might be able to get that coronal labial s
equence in top-- T is coronal, P is labial-- b
ut not the coronal dorsal sequence in take, a
s in because T is coronal, K is dorsal.
And in these consonants separated by
a vowel, deletion or insertion of consonants
is observed less frequently, usually, rather
than dropping a sound or adding a sound, w
e're more likely to see a sound change.
So there are certain combinations that seem
to be more vulnerable than others. And the
place feature is most commonly affected.
So coronal labial could be an issue. And
I just give you a few examples here of a cor
onal labial sequence where the T is coronal
and the P is labial. And in sip, the S is coro
nal, the p is labial.
Another place combination could be the co
ronal dorsal. And so in this case, the D is c
oronal and the K is dorsal. So the target inv
olves that sequence. And same with sing, w
here S is coronal and the ing is
Week 7 Page 7
to even produce clusters. Maybe t
he child happened to
not produce a lot of words with cl
usters. That would enable us to ma
ke a decision, and we'd have to obt
ain some more information.
So to begin tying this together, let'
s look at some words produced by
a seven-yearold child. And so in this situation,
we've got a range of clusters. The
first word is a BL cluster. We hav
e a DR cluster, FL, BL, and a PL.
And the child
is always producing an error. And
that error always involves the inse
rtion of a W.
So what could be going on here?
Well, first thing I'm going
to do is look at what kind of comb
ination each cluster is. And so the
first cluster is a labial coronal, and
it's changed to a labial labial. So t
hat would lead me to believe that
perhaps labial coronal is simply no
t possible for this child.
So that's interesting. And the next
one up, the DR, is a coronal. And t
he R has labial and coronal eleme
nts to it, but that's simply all chang
ed up so that it is coronal coronal.
The FL-- another example of the F
is labial, the L
is coronal, and the child replaces t
hat with all labials. So again, anot
her difficult sequence for the child
. Replaces it with a labial labial.
We've got the BL again. That's an
other labial coronal. The child repl
aces that with labial labial. And th
en finally, again, with PL, a labial
coronal, which the child replaces
with labial labial.
So when I talked about how these
constraints aren't reflected by one
change-- they're seen in a variety o
f-- should be seen in a variety of p
roductions, especially when the ph
onemes differ slightly. And I think
this is a great example of how we
took this child, who has several dif
ferent kinds of consonant cluster e
rrors, and looked for the commona
lities, and identified that when the
place of articulation differed betw
een the two members of a cluster,
the child adjusted their production
to make place similar.
nal, the p is labial.
Another place combination could be the co
ronal dorsal. And so in this case, the D is c
oronal and the K is dorsal. So the target inv
olves that sequence. And same with sing, w
here S is coronal and the ing is
a velar sound.
So if we were exploring this as clinicians,
what would we look for? Well, we're trying
to get a sense of whether there is some assi
milation going on and whether there's featu
re spreading. So is it possible that one soun
d is changing because of feature spreading
from another sound? We also might look at
metathesis of consonant features and whet
her there's any moving around of phonemes
, or just like flipping of phonemes along wi
th migration, which is more of the moveme
nt of phonemes.
And so in doing so, we come back to trying
to understand the place
manner of voicing characteristics that are a
ssociated with this sequence. Think about t
hat. What are the characteristics associated
with each segment? What are the features a
ssociated with each segment? And can that
help me understand why a child may not be
able to produce both segments in a word?
When we talk about the variability in produ
ction, as we commonly see in children, we'r
e brought back to whether the child ever pr
oduces that sequence correctly. And that's k
ey. Remember, we're so focused on the erro
rs. Well, look at whether there's a correct se
quence there, because if so, I'd like to know
what the characteristics of that sequence ar
e.
Remember the example of S being able to
be paired with an N in sun but not in soap.
Well, that's kind of the same thing here in t
hat I analyzed when the combination was p
ossible to help me figure out what went wr
ong when it wasn't possible.
On top of that, in that situation we were onl
y focused on features. But in reality, we als
o want to be focused on super segmental fa
ctors. Recall super segmental are kind of a
group of word structure, word length, stress
pattern, and could that play a role in why f
eatures can be combined together?
We also come back to the impact of speaki
ng contexts. So just as we did before, is the
re a difference in the way that consonants a
re produced when they're separated by vow
els in single words versus connected speec
h, in imitative versus spontaneous producti
on? And there may be times, if we don't ha
ve all the evidence we need, that I might ne
ed to have a child imitate the kinds of sequ
ences I want them to produce in order to ex
plore that further. Dynamic assessment. I'll
use cuing. I'll push their system, tax the sys
tem to see what I can get them to produce.
And then finally, looking at the range of th
e sample just as we did for the clusters. Is t
he sample adequate to form conclusions? T
his is such an important point because som
etimes diagnosticians make decisions based
on not enough evidence. And we can't mak
e judgments about processes or about const
raints because these are intended to be-- the
se are systematic patterns that will occur wi
th some regularity. So do we need to obtain
some additional information?
So now let's look at how to identify a const
raint that might involve consonants separat
ed by a vowel. And first we're going to loo
k at a situation where a child is struggling t
o produce a coronal labial sequence. In the
example bat, coronal is the T, labial is the
B. And so what does the child do? The chil
d repairs this by making both phonemes lab
ial. And we can see that right here.
In the case of soap, the child replaces that
with bope. And recall that the S is coronal.
That's not possible, so this repair will be to
make both consonants labial as in bope.
And then lastly, for this group, name beco
mes maim. Same kind of problem. N is cor
onal, the m is labial, and the child changes
both to make them labial labial.
Week 7 Page 8
make both consonants labial as in bope.
And then lastly, for this group, name beco
mes maim. Same kind of problem. N is cor
onal, the m is labial, and the child changes
both to make them labial labial.
Now interestingly, we could see something
quite different happen. And perhaps the chi
ld made a choice not to favor the labial pho
neme, and then bat became tat, soap becam
e, maybe, sote and name became nate. So t
hese are all possibilities to avoid that seque
nce.
Next
step. Difficulty producing a coronal dorsal
sequence. In this situation, the coronal and
dorsal can't be combined. In the word gat, t
he child is producing dat, and in this case, t
he dorsal in the G
and the coronal in the T is simply replaced
by two coronals.
Cone becoming cong, same situation but di
fferent direction. So the K is dorsal, the N i
s coronal. And the end result are two dorsal
phonemes.
And then the last one. In guard, the child pr
oduces karg, and in this situation, the phon
emes that are produced in the child's word
are both dorsal phonemes. So simply avoid
the sequence by making elements more sim
ilar in one direction or another.
Up to this point, we've focused a lot on how
constants influence each other. But constants
and vowels can also influence each other. T
his next component will talk about what hap
pens when constants and vowels are adjacen
t to each other, as in a CV syllable or in othe
r syllables that are similar.
So CV place sequences are mainly seen in e
arly development. And when we're looking a
t a constant and vowels sequence, we want t
o examine the words that begin with the sam
e consonant but perhaps have different vowe
ls to see if whether that consonant might be i
mpacted by those different vowels. And cert
ainly, this is a good place to bring out your v
owels quadrilateral. If you think about how
vowel movement is adjusted or vowels are p
roduced differently depending on tongue pos
ition and jaw height, that influence of height
and also tenseness and position within the o
ral cavity might have some relationship with
where consonants are produced.
Developmental patterns-- in the first three to
four years, we see assimilation between con
sonants and vowels. And a lot of times, there
's voicing assimilation that occurs. So the ti
mes where
we see the consonant change voicing status
could be because that's-- voicing is spread fr
om the vowel.
As children mature, their CV sequence const
raints that involve place of articulation are g
oing to be less and less common. So if we th
ink of some early sounds and combinations t
hat children form, perhaps if they're forming
-- if they're producing a front consonant, the
y're more likely to pair that with a front vow
el-- same with back consonants with back vo
wels. And so some of the variability that we
Week 7 Page 9
And then lastly, how do we actually l
ook at different speaking contexts, be
cause I bring this up a lot. And I'll hi
ghlight this over and over again, even
when we get more into assessment a
nd treatment. So at the single
word level, let's suppose that the coro
nal labial or the coronal dorsal seque
nce matches the adult form in single
words that were produced on the Gol
dmanFristoe. For instance, bat is produced
as bat, and that was elicited during a
picture naming test.
But in connected speech, I notice that
the coronal labial or the coronal dors
al sequence doesn't match the adult f
orm. And so bat becomes bap. My ba
p is wap might be the child's producti
on. And so how do I describe this? W
ell, simply, I can describe how there
are matches to the adult form at the si
ngle word level, and there are no mat
ches to the adult form, or at least, if
we saw more of this, there would be
no matches to the adult form at conne
cted speech level. And I really could
describe how coarticulation and even linguistic proce
ssing places greater demands on a chi
ld when more words are strung toget
her.
And so it's possible that the ability to
produce this sequence is emerging, a
nd that's why we see it in single word
s. It also might be that the child just
might need a little bit of work and a li
ttle bit of cueing to be able to carry th
at over to the next level of complexit
y, which
is to produce that maybe not quite in
connected speech, but in somewhere
in between, like
at the phrase or the sentence level, an
easier context.
ink of some early sounds and combinations t
hat children form, perhaps if they're forming
-- if they're producing a front consonant, the
y're more likely to pair that with a front vow
el-- same with back consonants with back vo
wels. And so some of the variability that we
see between words that begin with the same
consonant but different vowels might actuall
y reflect this type of place sequence constrai
nt between the consonant and the vowel.
So placefeature interactions-- we see this when a con
sonant can only be produced when it's next t
o a certain vowel. And so perhaps the labial
B is produced correctly when paired with a r
ounded vowel because there's a lot of activit
y at the front of the mouth or the velar is pro
duced correctly when paired with a back vo
wel.
And interestingly, these-- clinically, this is s
uch important information because in-- befo
re you know
it, we'll talking about treatment, planning tre
atment, and developing treatment stimuli. A
nd in doing that, we often, especially with ch
ildren who struggle to-- with certain consona
nt productions-- we might think of facilitatin
g that consonant production by pairing it wit
h a vowel that may be produced in the same
way.
For example, children who struggle to produ
ce velar phonemes-- velars aren't visual. The
y can be difficult to teach for some children.
And so first thing I'd do would be pair that
with a back vowel to help facilitate accurate
production.
And so there are pretty important implicatio
ns for treatment planning that we'll get to in
greater depth later. In terms of height interac
tions, vowel height can certainly impact pro
duction. And so that velar might be produce
d correctly when paired with a back vowel t
hat-- maybe a low back vowel that would re
quire greater mouth opening.
So let's take a look at a few constraints that i
nvolve a consonant
and vowel sequence. And I'll guide you thro
ugh it. And as we're doing so, let's try to see
if you can come up with why this might be h
appening-- these changes may be happening.
So the first word is "bi." And "bi" is accurat
e. It's maintained as "bi." But let's think abo
ut that for a minute. E is a high front vowel.
And B is a front consonant. So perhaps pairi
ng the high front vowel with the front conso
nant seems to work for this child-- sounds gr
eat.
"Pat"-- we've got a low back vowel. And we
have then the plosives that are produced som
ewhat anteriorly. T is an alveolar. P is a labi
al. And child struggles with the word and dr
ops one of those phonemes. So this is not co
rrect. And we'd need to think about that a litt
le bit more.
"Mam"-- also incorrect. Well, what could be
going on there? M is a front consonant, a la
bial consonant, paired with a back vowel.
"Bin" is produced correctly as "bin." And "w
in" is produced correctly as "win." So you ca
n see there's some matches and there's some
mismatches. And if we were to look at this o
nly in terms of the sounds as changing, we'd
be left puzzled.
One takehome message from this little analysis is that
when consonants are paired with a vowel th
at are similar in position, the word is produc
ed correctly. When consonants are not paire
d with a vowel in a similar position, the wor
d is not produced correctly.
And a range of several different errors were
happening. In one word, the initial consonan
t was deleted. In a different word-- that was
here-- both consonants were deleted. And so
this kind of analysis can help us provide ins
ight into some variable productions by a chil
d.
Week 7 Page 10
The last type of constraint we'll discuss is a
constraint that purely influences vowels, an
d so vowels can influence each other even if
they're separated by consonants.
So it could be possible that two different vo
wels certainly can't be allowed across conso
nants, and there's a couple of ways to fix thi
s. A speaker might use vowel harmony wher
e
a vowel is repeated, and that might be-- the
vowel entirely is repeated. And so an examp
le of that might be where mommy becomes
mama.
And total reduplication can occur where a s
yllable is repeated. So yes, in mommy beco
ming mama, the syllable was repeated sort o
f, but it isn't total reduplication because the
Ms were there already. But in the case of wa
ter becoming wawa, that's an example of ho
w the whole syllable in the beginning was re
peated twice, with the intent of making the v
owel more similar, so that production's easie
r.
Now, in some cases of reduplication, only th
e vowel harmonizes, and so we might see in
this case the child struggles to produce a C
VC, dog. Right, this is a CVC, and the
child replaces it with a CVCV. Well, a few t
hings are happening here. This could be a ch
ild who struggles with the CVC structure, pr
efers an open structure and, therefore, ends
up with a CVCV, but in doing so adds that v
owel and uses vowel harmony because it rep
eats that vowel completely.
So let's take a look at how to identify a cons
traint involving vowels that are separated by
a consonant. And so there are times when-There are times where the objective is to get
the vowels more similar, and there are other
times where a child might be able to handle
it. So if we look at baby becoming baba, it s
eems like what the child is trying to do is co
me up with some combination that is motori
cally easier and then being able to repeat tha
t. What's interesting here is that the child pai
rs that bilabial with a back vowel, but then i
n doing so is able to then repeat it a few tim
es. Puppy becoming pupu.
That schwa is being more similar to the-- is
being made more similar to the first vowel i
n the word, and so the end result might be ju
st changing one of the vowels to make it sim
ilar to the other vowel. Mama becoming mi
mi-- a couple of different things are happeni
ng here. The vowels were similar to begin w
ith. That's maintained. The similarity betwee
n vowels is maintained, but something happ
ened where the child paired that front conso
nant M now with the front vowel E. And the
n in super becoming supi, there's some chan
ging going on probably because the child tri
ed to pair that E with a front sound.
And so there are instances here where somet
imes children can deal with these issues sim
ply by making the vowels more similar to o
ne another, rather than having them be more
different. We also see some element of thos
e vowels still being influenced by the conso
nants that are adjacent to them.
So now we're ready to think about ho
w to apply this nonlinear approach to
a speech sample analysis. And so we'
re going to have two components that
we'll focus on-- the segmental comp
onent, which are sounds and features,
and the prosodic component.
In terms of the segmental focus, we w
ant to identify features in the repertoir
e based on the segments that are prod
uced. We simply take the phonetic in
ventory that we obtained from our ind
ependent analysis, and look at phone
mes that are productive, phonemes th
at are marginal, and the phonemes tha
t are absent, and the features that are
Week 7 Page 11
uced. We simply take the phonetic in
ventory that we obtained from our ind
ependent analysis, and look at phone
mes that are productive, phonemes th
at are marginal, and the phonemes tha
t are absent, and the features that are
associated with those phonemes. So it
's really pretty straightforward. It see
ms kind of overwhelming because yo
u're learning about distinctive feature
s and trying to apply that, but if we co
me back to that structure that we alre
ady have, it's a little bit easier to dige
st.
And so we're really getting at, what f
eatures are productive? What features
are components of those productive
phonemes? What features are part of t
hose marginal phonemes? And then,
which features are in the absent phon
emes that we didn't see at all? And ar
e there any features that we really did
n't sample at all?
We also, though, need to consider wo
rd position. And that's why we broke
our inventory up into these four word
positions that are shown here. We ne
ed to dive into features that may not b
e produced at any point at all, not eve
n one time in a sound, and then have t
o dive into those features that weren't
sampled that we really can't make jud
gments about. So for instance, you kn
ow, maybe there was no opportunity f
or a child to produce a nasal phony. T
hat's unusual, but it's always possible.
We need to collect additional produc
tions to dive into that a little bit furthe
r.
From a prosodic focus-- remember, th
e prosodic focus, the super segmental
focus, syllable number, stress pattern
, CVC shape. Now I'll use the term C
VC shape and word shape. I'll use bot
h to mean the same thing. And so don
't let that confuse you.
In terms of syllable number, I'm simp
ly looking at word length. Is there-- w
hat is possible in the child's system?
Can they string two, three, four syllab
les together or more? Or are producti
ons only one and two syllable?
Stress pattern, the types of stress patt
ern, the variety of patterns produced-is there evidence of trochaic versus i
ambic forms? Is there evidence of pri
mary and secondary stress if longer ut
terances exist?
And then CVC shape or word shape, t
he type of variety of patterns produce
d. You've already seen how these can
vary from CV to CVC to then adding
clusters like CCVC. So what is the ty
pe and variety?
And then lastly, examine the sample f
or the patterns that occur the most fre
quently. What does the child seem to
be favoring comes first? What are yo
u seeing but doesn't happen frequentl
y is important to look at, that range of
patterns. And then what are some pat
terns that you didn't find but you wou
ld expect given the child's age? And
we really kind of come back to that.
What is the child's age? Where are th
ey in development? And what would
we be expecting to see? And so we lo
ok to the developmental norms that w
e have in terms of features. The body
of literature related to prosodic comp
onents in terms of development is not
as robust, certainly, as what we have
for segments. But we can-- we do und
erstand the developmental sequence a
nd we can fall back on that.
Week 7 Page 12
Week 7 Page 13
Printout
Monday, March 8, 2021
7:59 PM
All syllables must end with a vowel
Week 7 Page 14
Printout
Monday, March 8, 2021
7:58 PM
Constraint:
Describe limitation, describe underlying rules a child has
No change necessary
Drop /m/ in weak syllable= /boto/
Repair: change labial /d/ to coronal= /tod/
Repair: delete lateral /l/= /sipere/
Repair: delete final consonant= /swimi/= swi is stressed, Ming is weak
Repair: change final consonant to dorsal /g/= /kug/
Repair: /t/ becomes /th/
Sistem= /sisthem/
Paket=
Additional Constraint Practice
Word
Constraint
Write Repairs or No Change Necessary
flow
Onset obligatory
No Change
bottom
No nasals in weak syllables
[baɾl]; [baɾr];[baɾə]+other
possibilities that are
[baɾV] or [baɾVC]
(many possibilities as long as no
/m/ in 2nd syllable)
top
[+coronal] can not exist in the same
word with [+labial]
[pɑp]; [tɑt]
slippery
[+continuant] can not exist with
[+lateral] in same syllable
[plɪpɚi] or [swɪpɚi]
swimming
No coda in weak syllable
[swɪmɪ]
cup
All consonants must be same place
of articulation
[pʌp] or [kʌk]
system
[+coronal] phonemes must also be
[+continuant]
[sɪsm]
Week 7 Page 15
[+continuant]
pocket
+back can not exist with +anterior
Week 7 Page 16
[sɪsm]
change t->s; xEnglish doesn’t have 2
adjacent [s]s so delete it
[pipɪt] [pɪpɪt]
[kakak] (any back vowel in 2nd
syllable is fine.)
Printout
Monday, March 8, 2021
7:58 PM
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BACK
CONSONANTS
CANNOT BE
PAIRED WITH
FRONT
VOWELS,
FRONT
CONSONANTS
CANNOT BE
PAIRED WITH
BACK VOWELS
1. Low vowels must be paired with low vowels
2. Front vowels must be paired with front vowels
3. Low vowels must be paired with low vowels
AND front vowels must be paired with front
vowels
LOW VOWELS MUST BE PAIRED WITH LOW VOWELS
FRONT VOWELS MUST BE PAIRED WITH FRONT VOWELS
HIGH VOWELS CANNOT BE PAIRED WITH EACHOTHER= IF ONE VOWEL IS HIGH,
THE OTHER MUST BE
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Printout
Monday, March 8, 2021
7:58 PM
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Midterm
Monday, March 8, 2021
linear analysis, like phonological processes, and nonlinear analysis where we
actually dive into the distinctive features that children are using.
7:58 PM
Speech Sound Disorders - Midterm Review
Test Format: 42 questions, 37 Multiple Choice 5 True/False (2 mini case studies)
Ex: presented info about a child and sample of productions
Password: WinTerNight20 (this is from Nicole’s section)
Time to complete: 2 hours, open for 1 week, due at your typically scheduled live session
*You can use scrap paper, just show the camera your paper at the beginning and end of your exam.
Nicole’s Notes:
Weeks 1-6 (sequence constraints won’t be on the midterm)
Will not need to draw trees (such as feature geometry). You will need to know the vocab to understand it though
Notes:
-#4 is it’s own question, not combined w/ previous group of questions. Just read carefully.
-vowel processes not on midterm, but know quadrilateral
Topics to review:
-Syllable & Word structure – given word, match the structure (CV, CVC, etc.)
○ ‘Bright’ braɪt (CCVC)
-Syllable & Word position - name the error in a certain position (SIWI, SFWF, etc.)
-Distinctive features – choose a word that has all of the following features.
Know P, M, V, + continuant, sonorant, consonantal
Important features to know:
○ +coronal, dorsal (velar), continuant, sonorant (open vocal tract), consonantal
-Suprasegmentals (stress, prosody, etc.)
Stress-match word with typical stress pattern (guessing trochaic, iambic, but she just said Sw, wS, etc.) Know
diacritics for primary (‘) and secondary (,) stress
○ Remember that [ə] signals weak syllable
-Independent analysis – child’s repertoire alone, not compared to adult form
-Relational analysis
-Phonological processes – match process to example
○ Various phonological processes can explain what is going on, but pick the best one
SYLLABLE
STRUCTURE
PROCESS
1. Syllable deletion (unstressed syllable)
2. Consonant deletion (initial or final)
3. Reduplication: partial or total repetition of syllable or word
4. Consonant cluster reduction/simplification: total vs. partial
5. Epenthesis: insert vowel (usually schwa) between two consonants
SUBSTITUTION
PROCESS
1. Stopping
2. Fronting
3. Backing
4. Stridency deletion: delete or replace strident (f, v, s, z, sh, ch) (ALL affricates and
fricatives EXCEPT “th”) with a non-strident sound, closely associated with
stopping
5. Deaffrication: substitute a fricative or a stop with an affricate
6. Depalatalization: substitute alveolar fricative for a palatal fricative
7. Gliding: replace liquids with glides
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8. Vowelization/vocalization: syllabic liquids or nasals are replaced with vowels
*when child doesn’t delete other final consonants, vowelization is NOT FCD.
ASSIMILATION
PROCESS
1. Degree of assimilation: total vs. partial=
total assimilation= a phoneme is completely repeated in a word, in a place where i
t hadn't been repeat again. partial assimilation=consonants are changed but they're
not changed to be identical, they're changed to be more similar than in the adult f
orm.
2. Direction of assimilation: progressive= sound that causes change precedes
affected sound and regressive= sound that causes change follows affected sound.
3. Types of assimilation: Velar= alveolar consonant becomes more like velar,
labial= nonlabial replaced with labial in a context containing labial, alveolar=
nonalveolar sound influenced by alveolar, nasal= nonnasal to nasal, manner
change but place may also be assimilated.
○
4. Prevocalic voicing= voiceless obstruent (fricative, affricate, stop) becomes voiced
when preceding a vowel within the same syllable.
5. Postvocalic devoicing= involves devoicing of a voiced obstruent when it occurs
at the end of a syllable.
6. Coalescence= features from two adjacent sounds combine to form one sound
(total assimilation)
7. Contiguous (adjacent segments) vs. noncontinguous (nonadjacent)
IDIOSYNCRATIC/
UNUSUAL
PATTERNS
1. Atypical cluster reduction: deletion of one consonant that is usually retained
2. Initial consonant deletion
3. Medial consonant deletion: delete intervocalic consonant
4. Apicalization: labial replaced by apical (tongue tip) consonant
5. Backing of stops
6. Backing of fricatives
7. Glottal replacement: substitution of glottal stop for a consonant usually in
medial/final position
8. Medical consonant substitution: replacement of intervocalic consonants with one
or more phoneme
9. Denasalization: nasal becomes nonnasal
10. Devoicing of stops: replace voiced stops with a voiceless phoneme (usually
stop) in word in initial position.
11. Fricatives replacing stops
12. Stops replacing glides
13. Metathesis: reversal of position of two sounds; sounds may not be adjacent
14. Migration: movement of a sound from one position in a word to another
-Order of derivation – will identify from a given list
-Constraints and repairs – given a word and a constraint, what would the child’s production look like. (ex. hous child can
only produce open syllables = hou) AND VICE VERSA
-Process Density Index (PDI) – how many processes are occurring?
Higher score = lower intelligibility. Does not state the process, just counts how many processes
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Higher score = lower intelligibility. Does not state the process, just counts how many processes
○ # of phonological patterns in sample/ total # of words in sample
-PCC = % consonant correct : higher score = better intelligibility
-Place, Manner and Voicing
-Chronological Mismatch – know earlier developing sounds vs. later to determine if they are a mismatch
• i.e. if fricatives are appearing before stops, this would be a chronological mismatch
-Non-linear features
-Feature geometry= understand the foot and the roots
Be prepared to do the following:
-Identify stress patterns -Identify multiple processes on a single word: Adult form child form
-Given a child’s constraint, identify a possible repair
-Identify a manner/voice/place change, corresponding distinctive feature change and corresponding phonological
process change
(ex. Velar alveolar = +dorsal - dorsal = fronting)
Example Questions:
‘Dog’
/dɔg/ > [dɔʒ]
Identify change in place:
• velar > alveolar
• [+dorsal] > [-dorsal]
Process:
• Fronting
Derivation Example:
‘Brush’
/brʌʃ/ > [bwʌd]
1. Cluster reduction: /brʌʃ/ > [bwʌʃ]
○ When talking about clusters - don’t talk about gliding!
2. Stopping: [bwʌʃ] > [bwʌt]
3. Voicing: [bwʌt] > [bwʌd]
Could be in any order - pick the best answer & change one feature at a time
Speech Sound Disorders - Midterm Review
Test Format: 42 questions, 37 Multiple Choice 5 True/False (2 mini case studies)
Ex: presented info about a child and sample of productions
Password: WinTerNight20 (this is from Nicole’s section)
Time to complete: 2 hours, open for 1 week, due at your typically scheduled live session
*You can use scrap paper, just show the camera your paper at the beginning and end of your exam.
Nicole’s Notes:
Week 7 Page 23
Nicole’s Notes:
Weeks 1-6 (sequence constraints won’t be on the midterm)
Will not need to draw trees (such as feature geometry). You will need to know the vocab to understand it though
Notes:
-#4 on the exam is it’s own question, not combined w/ previous group of questions. Just read carefully.
-vowel processes not on midterm, but know quadrilateral
Topics to review:
-Syllable & Word structure – given word, match the structure (CV, CVC, etc.)
○ ‘Bright’ braɪt (CCVC)
-Syllable & Word position - name the error in a certain position (SIWI, SFWF, etc.)
-Distinctive features – choose a word that has all of the following features.
Know P, M, V, + continuant, sonorant, consonantal
Important features to know:
○ +coronal, dorsal (velar), labial, continuant, sonorant (open vocal tract), consonantal
○ Came up a lot during asynch: labial, lateral, nasal, strident, voicing, anterior
-Suprasegmentals (stress, prosody, etc.)
Stress-match word with typical stress pattern (guessing trochaic, iambic, but she just said Sw, wS, etc.) Know
diacritics for primary (‘) and secondary (,) stress
○ Remember that [ə] signals weak syllable
-Independent analysis – child’s repertoire alone, not compared to adult form
-Relational analysis - compairing to adult target form so you can look at error patterns
○ Ideally 100 word sample
○ Minimum 50 word sample
-Phonological processes – match process to example
○ Various phonological processes can explain what is going on, but pick the best one
SYLLABLE
STRUCTURE
PROCESS
Syllable deletion (unstressed syllable)
Consonant deletion (initial or final)
Reduplication: partial or total repetition of syllable or word
Consonant cluster reduction/simplification: total vs. partial
Epenthesis: insert vowel (usually schwa) between two consonants
SUBSTITUTIO Stopping
N PROCESS
Fronting
Backing
Stridency deletion: delete or replace strident (f, v, s, z, sh, ch) (ALL affricates and
fricatives EXCEPT “th”) with a non-strident sound, closely associated with stopping
Deaffrication: substitute a fricative or a stop with an affricate
Depalatalization: substitute alveolar fricative for a palatal fricative
Gliding: replace liquids with glides
Vowelization/vocalization: syllabic liquids or nasals are replaced with vowels *when child
doesn’t delete other final consonants, vowelization is NOT FCD.
ASSIMILATIO
N PROCESS
Degree of assimilation: total vs. partial= total assimilation= a phoneme is completely
repeated in a word, in a place where it hadn't been repeat again. partial
assimilation=consonants are changed but they're not changed to be identical, they're
changed to be more similar than in the adult form.
Direction of assimilation: progressive= sound that causes change precedes affected
sound and regressive= sound that causes change follows affected sound.
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sound and regressive= sound that causes change follows affected sound.
Types of assimilation: Velar= alveolar consonant becomes more like velar, labial=
nonlabial replaced with labial in a context containing labial, alveolar= nonalveolar sound
influenced by alveolar, nasal= nonnasal to nasal, manner change but place may also be
assimilated.
Prevocalic voicing= voiceless obstruent (fricative, affricate, stop) becomes voiced when
preceding a vowel within the same syllable.
Postvocalic devoicing= involves devoicing of a voiced obstruent when it occurs at the
end of a syllable.
Coalescence= features from two adjacent sounds combine to form one sound (total
assimilation)
coalescence, is a sound change where two or more segments with distinctive features
merge into a single segment. This can occur both on consonants and in vowels. A word
like educate is one that may exhibit fusion, e.g. /ɛdjʊkeɪt/ or /ˈɛdʒʊkeɪt/.
Contiguous (adjacent segments) /spuk/--/stuk/
vs. noncontinguous (nonadjacent) /naif/-->/maif/
IDIOSYNCRAT Atypical cluster reduction: deletion of one consonant that is usually retained
IC/ UNUSUAL
PATTERNS
Initial consonant deletion
Medial consonant deletion: delete intervocalic consonant
Apicalization: labial replaced by apical (tongue tip) consonant - alveolars
Backing of stops
Backing of fricatives
Glottal replacement: substitution of glottal stop for a consonant usually in medial/final
position
Medical consonant substitution: replacement of intervocalic consonants with one or more
phoneme
Denasalization: nasal becomes nonnasal
Devoicing of stops: replace voiced stops with a voiceless phoneme (usually stop) in word
in initial position.
Fricatives replacing stops
Stops replacing glides
Metathesis: reversal of position of two sounds; sounds may not be adjacent
Migration: movement of a sound from one position in a word to another
-Order of derivation – will identify from a given list
-Constraints and repairs – given a word and a constraint, what would the child’s production look like. (ex. hous child can
only produce open syllables = hou) AND VICE VERSA
-Process Density Index (PDI) – how many processes are occurring?
Higher score = lower intelligibility. Does not state the process, just counts how many processes
○ # of phonological patterns in sample/ total # of words in sample
-PCC = % consonant correct : higher score = better intelligibility
-Place, Manner and Voicing
-Chronological Mismatch – know earlier developing sounds vs. later to determine if they are a mismatch
• i.e. if fricatives are appearing before stops, this would be a chronological mismatch
-Non-linear features (additive features)
• Highlights interaction between segmental and suprasegmental components of speech)
• Development is additive. What features can be added to their system?
-Feature geometry= understand the foot and the roots
Week 7 Page 25
-Feature geometry= understand the foot and the roots
Be prepared to do the following:
-Identify stress patterns -Identify multiple processes on a single word: Adult form child form
-Given a child’s constraint, identify a possible repair
-Identify a manner/voice/place change, corresponding distinctive feature change and corresponding phonological
process change
(ex. Velar alveolar = +dorsal - dorsal = fronting)
Example Questions:
‘Dog’
/dɔg/ > [dɔʒ]
Identify change in place:
• velar > alveolar
• [+dorsal] > [-dorsal]
Process:
• Fronting
Derivation Example:
‘Brush’
/brʌʃ/ > [bwʌd]
1. Cluster reduction: /brʌʃ/ > [bwʌʃ]
1. When talking about clusters - don’t talk about gliding!
2. Stopping: [bwʌʃ] > [bwʌt]
3. Voicing: [bwʌt] > [bwʌd]
Could be in any order - pick the best answer & change one feature at a time
Week 7 Page 26
TA
Sunday, March 7, 2021
7:53 PM
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Monday, March 8, 2021
8:18 PM
fricatives and glides are both continuous to some extent. But they differ with respe
ct to several features that comprise them. And so these components illustrate motor
aspects of producing each sound.
BUTTERCUP STRESS? Sws?
Order of derivation= when you move place and then manner, you can't go
from voiceless fricative to voiced stop???????
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Printout
Friday, March 12, 2021
6:21 PM
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