How Does the Phonology of a One Year Old Differ from That of a Two-Three Year Old? Describe the Main Changes to Be Expected over the First Year of Word Use.
How does the phonology of a one year old differ from that of a two-three year old? Describe the main changes to be expected over the first year of word use.
A child between one and three years undergoes considerable development in their phonological ability (Ingram, 1986). They adopt specific phonological processes and it will be explored when and how children use these to attain accurate pronunciations and how individual differences affect phonological development.
Grunwell (1981) suggests that the first six months of productive language development (0.9-1.6 years) is word-based, because of the limited phonetic variants and progressive changes in pronunciation. However, he suggests 1.6-2.0 years is the end of the first stage of speech development, which is co-occurrent with the achievement of an active vocabulary of 50 words. Menn & Vihman (2011) suggest that these early words parallel babbling, in that they are characterised by unmarked elements and structures, such as plosives, nasals and glides; simple vowels and CV structures. This stage of development in a child’s inventory may be characterised as a ‘proto-system’, as the child-forms do not resemble adult words (Grunwell, 1981). However, the child’s early phonetic inventory (table 1) suggests that the child has a basic contrastive system and indicates that their phonological system has commenced, which will see an increase in new words and the emergence of two-word utterances (Grunwell, 1981).
m | n | p b | t d | w | |
Table 1: A phonetic inventory of a child 1.6-2.0 years (Grunwell, 1981).
Grunwell (1981) presents a ‘chronology of phonological processes’ (p175) which reflects a child’s phonological development in terms of the disappearance of simplifying processes between 2.0-4.6years. These processes are summarised in table 2 and show that reduplication and consonant harmony are the only structural simplification processes outgrown by age two, which agree with the findings of
A child between one and three years undergoes considerable development in their phonological ability (Ingram, 1986). They adopt specific phonological processes and it will be explored when and how children use these to attain accurate pronunciations and how individual differences affect phonological development.
Grunwell (1981) suggests that the first six months of productive language development (0.9-1.6 years) is word-based, because of the limited phonetic variants and progressive changes in pronunciation. However, he suggests 1.6-2.0 years is the end of the first stage of speech development, which is co-occurrent with the achievement of an active vocabulary of 50 words. Menn & Vihman (2011) suggest that these early words parallel babbling, in that they are characterised by unmarked elements and structures, such as plosives, nasals and glides; simple vowels and CV structures. This stage of development in a child’s inventory may be characterised as a ‘proto-system’, as the child-forms do not resemble adult words (Grunwell, 1981). However, the child’s early phonetic inventory (table 1) suggests that the child has a basic contrastive system and indicates that their phonological system has commenced, which will see an increase in new words and the emergence of two-word utterances (Grunwell, 1981).
m | n | p b | t d | w | |
Table 1: A phonetic inventory of a child 1.6-2.0 years (Grunwell, 1981).
Grunwell (1981) presents a ‘chronology of phonological processes’ (p175) which reflects a child’s phonological development in terms of the disappearance of simplifying processes between 2.0-4.6years. These processes are summarised in table 2 and show that reduplication and consonant harmony are the only structural simplification processes outgrown by age two, which agree with the findings of
References: Grunwell, P. (1981) The development of Phonology: A Desciptive Profile. First Language. 2: 161-191 Ingram, D (1986) Ch10: Phonological Development: Production. In Fletcher, P & Garman, M. Language acquisition pp223-239 CUP: UK 2nd Edition Menn, L. & Vihman, M. M. (2011) Part V: Features in Phonological development: Features in Child Phonology: Inherent, Emergent, or Artefacts of Analysis? In Clements, N. G & Ridouane, R (Ed) Where do Phonological Features Come From? Cognitive, Physical and developmental bases of distinctive speech categories. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp259-303 Vihman, M. M (2004) Ch3: Later Phonological Development. In Bernthal, J. E & Bankson, N. W, Articulation and Phonological Disorders, pp105-138. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 5th Edition. Vihman, M. M., Ferguson, A. & Elbert, M (1986) Phonological development from babbling to speech: common tendencies and individual differences. Applied Pyscholinguistics, 7: 3-40 Vihman, M. M. & Greenlee, M. (1987) Individual Differences in Phonological Development: Ages one and three years Journal of speech and hearing research. 30: 503-521