What are Phonological Processes?

What are Phonological Processes?

Phonological processes are the patterns of sound errors that typically developing young children use to simplify adult speech as they are learning to talk. All children use these processes while their speech and language are developing.

Young children do not yet have the ability to coordinate all the mouth structures such as the lips and tongue for clear speech, so they simplify complex words in predictable ways until they develop the coordination needed for clear articulation.

As children get older, their speech matures and they stop using these patterns to simplify words, which results in more understandable, adult-like speech. As every child is unique, each child will develop their phonology skills differently, but there are ages when it is expected that a child should stop using different phonological processes.

Below is a table describing the different phonological processes and the age by which they should likely disappear:

Substitution Processes

Phonological Process	Description	Examples	Gone by Approximately
Fronting	A sound produced in the back of the mouth, e.g. /k/ or /sh/, is replaced by a sound produced in the front of the mouth, e.g. /t/ or /s/.	car → tar sheep → seep	3:6 yrs
Backing	A sound produced in the front of the mouth, e.g. /t/ or /d/, is replaced by a sound produced in the back of the mouth, e.g. /k/ or /g/.	tap → cap duck → guck	Usually seen in more severe phonological delays.
Stopping	A fricative sound (e.g. /f/, /s/ or /sh/) or affricate sound (e.g. /ch/ or /j/) is replaced by a plosive/stop sound (e.g. /p/, /t/, /d/).	fish → pish sun → tun shoe → too thin → tin	3 yrs = /f/, /s/ 3:6 yrs = /v/, /z/ 4:6 yrs = ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘j’ 5 yrs = ‘th’
Deaffrication	An affricate (e.g. ‘ch’ or ‘j’), is replaced with a fricative or stop sound (e.g. ‘sh’ or ‘d’).	chips →  ships jump → dump	4 years
Gliding	Liquid sounds (/l/, /r/) are replaced by glide sounds (/y/, /w/).	leg → yeg ring → wing	5 yrs

Syllable Structure Processes

Phonological Process	Description	Examples	Gone by Approximately
Final consonant deletion	The final consonant in a word is deleted.	soap → sew dog → dah	3:3 yrs
Weak syllable deletion	The unstressed syllable in a word is deleted.	telephone →tephone banana → nana	4 yrs
Cluster reduction	A consonant cluster (two consonants next to one another) is reduced to a single consonant.	spoon → poon truck → tuck	4 yrs

Assimilation Processes

Phonological Process	Description	Examples	Gone by Approximately
Pre-vocalic voicing	An voiceless sound at the beginning of a word, e.g. /p/ or /k/, is replaced by a voiced sound, e.g. /b/ or /g/.	pig → big key → gey	3 yrs
Word final devoicing	A final voiced sound, e.g. /d/ or /g/, is replaced by a voiceless sound, e.g. /t/ or /k/.	bed → bet bag → bak	3 yrs
Consonant harmony	A sound starts to sound like another sound in the word.	bus → bub cat → tat	3:9 yrs

Click here to download the PDF version of this table.

A phonological delay is when a child continues to use these processes beyond the age when most typically developing children have stopped using them.

It is important to consider contacting a speech- and language therapist for an evaluation if you are concerned regarding your child’s speech intelligibility and/or suspect a phonological delay.

Information for this post was gathered from these sources:

1. http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?p=2158
2. http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2011/09/phonological-processes-and-phonological-delay/
3. http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:table2&catid=11:admin&Itemid=117
4. http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31:table3&catid=11:admin&Itemid=117

Post Submitted by Elmien Truter