Phonological processes are patterns of speech errors. Phonological Process: Final Consonant Deletion If you have concerns with your child’s speech and language skills please contact Samantha at Chicago Speech and More by calling (847) 774-0582 or using the contact us form on the website. If your child continues to demonstrate cluster reduction beyond 3½ years, it is recommended that you contact a speech-language pathologist. In typical development, cluster reduction is often eliminated by 3½ years of age. Usually as a child’s speech and language skills become more mature, this process corrects itself.
It is present in many young children’s speech. Like many phonological processes, cluster reduction is common. Should I be concerned if my child is using the process of cluster reduction? As the frequency with which a child uses cluster reduction increases, his speech intelligibility decreases. While cluster reduction is a common speech error, its effects can reduce a child’s speech intelligibility. Medial position: lipstick becomes “liptick”. Cluster reduction can occur in any word position. With the word “space”, a child using cluster reduction might say this as “pace”. A consonant cluster is when there are 2-3 consonants next to one another in a word (“sp” in space). It occurs when a child reduces a consonant cluster to a single consonant. What is cluster reduction:Ĭluster reduction is a syllable structure process. Cluster reduction is one of the more common phonological process. While these error patterns are typical and at times very cute, if they persist past a certain age they become atypical. Most children demonstrate some phonological processes when acquiring language. These errors affect entire groups or classes of sounds. Children use these processes when trying to produce adult-like speech.
Allophonic Variants of English Consonants 9.1