The effect of phonological complexity on the order in which words are acquired in early childhood (original) (raw)
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Relationships between lexical and phonological development in young children*
Journal of Child Language, 2010
ABSTRACTOur understanding of the relationships between lexical and phonological development has been enhanced in recent years by increased interest in this area from language scientists, psychologists and phonologists. This review article provides a summary of research, highlighting similarities and differences across studies. It is suggested that the research falls into two categories with different goals and different methodological approaches: (1) child-centered studies that examine the influences active in the prelinguistic and early-word period, emphasizing individual developmental patterns and the active role played by the child; and (2) studies inspired by research on word processing in adults; these focus on the effects of the phonological and lexical characteristics of the ambient language on underlying representations and word learning in children. The article concludes with suggestions for integrating the findings from the two approaches and for future research.
Psychology Collection (Version 3). The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development A. Phillips Blackwell Handbook of Language Development Edited by Erika Hoff. This Handbook, in its 25 definitive chapters on normal and nonnormal language development, represents the authoritative and up-to-date complete sourcebook. The Blackwell Handbook of Language Development provides a comprehensive treatment of the major topics and current concerns in the field, exploring.
Lexical and Phonological Effects in Early Word Production
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2012
Purpose This study examines the influence of word frequency, phonological neighborhood density (PND), age of acquisition (AoA), and phonotactic probability on production variability and accuracy of known words by toddlers with no history of speech, hearing, or language disorders. Method Fifteen toddlers between 2;0 (years;months) and 2;5 produced monosyllabic target words varying in word frequency, PND, AoA, and phonotactic probability. Phonetic transcription was used to determine (a) whole-word variability and (b) proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP; Ingram, 2002) of each target word produced. Results Results show a significant effect of PND on PWP and variability (words from dense neighborhoods had higher PWP and lower variability than those from sparse neighborhoods), a significant effect of word frequency on variability (high-frequency words were less variable) but not proximity, and a significant effect of AoA on proximity (earlier acquired words had lower PWP) but not vari...
CoDAS, 2016
To verify the probable correlations between the number of word types and the number of consonants in the general phonological system in children with typical language development. Study participants were 186 children aged one year and six months to five years, 11 months and 29 days who were monolingual Brazilian Portuguese speakers with typical language development. Data collection involved speech, language and hearing assessments and spontaneous speech recordings. Phonology was assessed with regard to the number of acquired consonants in the general phonological system, in each syllable structure and in Implicational Model of Feature Complexity (IMFC) levels. Vocabulary was assessed with regard to number of word types produced. These data were compared across age groups. After that, correlations between the word types produced and the variables established for the phonological system were analyzed. The significance level adopted was 5%. All phonological aspects evaluated presented ...
Individual differences in phonological development: ages one and three years
Journal of speech and hearing research, 1987
This paper reports the results of a study of the persistence of individual differences in the phonological development of 10 normally developing children observed at age 1 year and again at age 3 years. Data were based on 1/2-hr audio and video recordings of weekly spontaneous mother-child interaction sessions in the home between 9 and 17 months and at 36 months. In addition, phonological and cognitive probes were administered at age 3. At age 1 the children were compared at four times selected on the basis of the number of different word types used in a session. Preferences for particular phonological categories (fricatives, liquids, final consonants) were found not to correspond to relative mastery of those categories at age 3. Based on both babble and words, high use of vocalizations containing true consonants was found to be predictive of greater phonological advance at age 3. Phonological errors of two kinds were distinguished for age 3: those resulting from difficulty with spe...
Density, frequency and the expressive phonology of children with phonological delay
Journal of Child Language, 2011
ABSTRACTThe effect of word-level variables on expressive phonology has not been widely studied, although the properties of words likely bear on the emergence of sound structure (Stoel-Gammon, 2011). Eight preschoolers, diagnosed with phonological delay, were assigned to treatment to experimentally induce gains in expressive phonology. Erred sounds were taught using stimulus words that varied orthogonally in neighborhood density and word frequency as the independent variables. Generalization was the dependent variable, defined as production accuracy of treated and untreated (erred) sounds. Blocked comparisons showed that dense neighborhoods triggered greater generalization, but frequency did not have a clear differential effect. Orthogonal comparisons revealed graded effects, with frequent words from dense neighborhoods being optimal for generalization. The results contrast with prior literature, which has reported a sparse neighborhood advantage for children with phonological delay....
Patterns of intra-word phonological variability during the second year of life
Journal of Child Language, 2006
Phonological representation for adult speakers is generally assumed to include sub-lexical information at the level of the phoneme. Some have suggested, however, that young children operate with more holistic lexical representations. If young children use whole-word representation and adults employ phonemic representation, then a component of phonological development includes a transition from holistic to segmental storage of phonological information. The present study addresses the nature of this transition by investigating the prevalence and patterns of intra-word production variability during the first year of lexical acquisition (1;0–2;0). Longitudinal data from four typically developing children were analysed to determine variability at each age. Patterns of variability are discussed in relation to chronological age and productive vocabulary size. Results show high overall rates of variability, as well as a peak in variability corresponding to the onset of combinatorial speech,...
Phoneme complexity and frequency in the acquisition of Hebrew rhotics
Journal of Child Language Acquisition and Development, 2015
This study investigates the roles of two factors potentially affecting acquisition order of phonemes: (a) the lexical frequency of the phoneme in various prosodic positions, and (b) phoneme consistency. The research analyses rhotic attempts and productions in the spontaneous speech of two Hebrew-acquiring children from the onset of speech until the completion of rhotic acquisition. I show that the more consistent (i.e. less allophonic variation) a phoneme is in a given prosodic position, the more likely the infant is to attempt targets with this phoneme in this position (selectivity) and the earlier the faithful production of the phoneme in this position will be. Lexical frequency is shown to play no noticeable role in the early acquisition of Hebrew rhotics. Rather, it is phoneme consistency which drives selectivity and biases acquisition order.
Phonological versus Lexical factors in Children ' s Productions at the Onset of Word Use
2016
At the earliest onset of word use, the growing number of recognizable and consistent attachments of vocalizations to particular word targets requires increasing precision in interactions of the systems supporting speech and language development (e.g. Davis & Bedore, 2013; Meltzoff, Kuhl, Movellan & Sejnowski, 2009). A major issue in fully understanding children’s formative stages of wordbased speech and language acquisition relates to potential interactions between their available phonological and/or articulatory capacities (how they produce sound patterns) and their early lexical choices (what words they want to say) (e.g Stoel-Gammon, 2011). To consider the factors motivating observable speech output patterns, the question arises of whether children at the onset of word use mainly attempt to produce words consisting of sounds they can already produce, or whether young children pick word targets without much regard for the sounds in those words. Another relevant factor that we will...