early stages phonology

• Deletion - leave out the final consonant of a word
• Substitution - swap one sound for another that is easier to produce
• Assimilation - reducing the number of different sounds in the words, therefore making it easier to say
• Consonant cluster reduction - where there are groups of two or more consonants, children might reduce these to smaller units
• Changing the order of sounds - to make them easier to say
• Babbling sounds

  • from about 6 months, babies start to use vowel and consonant sounds to make more varies sounds
  • Reduplicated babbling appears first - repeating the same sound
  • Variegated babbling emerges slightly later and involves variation in the vowel and consonant sounds being produced
• Groups of sounds ordered phonologically

  1. Early 8 - m, b, y, n, w, d, p, h = by 3 years
  2. Middle 8 - t, ng, k, g, f, ch, j = by 4-5 years
  3. Late 8 - sh, th, s, l, r, zh = by 6 years