Prevocalic Voicing (pvv) is a phonological process typically lasting up to the age of 3 years. Pvv happens when voiceless consonants (t, k, p, s, f, sh, th, ch, h) in the initial position of a word or syllable is replaced by a voiced consonant.
Examples:
tog = dog
pig = big
chug = jug
fine = vine
cookie = guh-gee
Reduplication (Rd), also called Doubling, is a phonological process present in typical development, up to the age of 2-3 years. This is one of the earliest phonological processes in normal development and is frequently seen within the child’s first 50 learned words. Rd occurs when one or more syllables within one word is repeated to form a different version of that word.
Examples:
banana = nana
daddy = dada
mommy = mama
water = wawa
grandpa = papa
A subset of Rd, called Diminutive forms, occurs when the child adds a syllable to the end of a word.
Examples:
dog = doggie
horse = horsie
frog = froggie
This process may reoccur at the age of 3 years, when the child begins using multisyllabic words.
Final Consonant Deletion (FCD), also called Deletion of Final Consonants or Postvocalic Consonant Omission, is a phonological process typically lasting up to the age of 3 years. FCD occurs when the consonant sound or cluster in the final position is left off from the child’s syllables, leaving only a vowel at the end of the syllable. This may occur in one or multiple-syllable words, and will effect all syllables of the word.
Examples:
bats = bah
frog = frah
toothache = too-ay
teamwork = tee-wor
basketball = bah-keh-bah
Fronting (Fr) is a phonological process, sometimes defined in subsets of Palatal Fronting and Velar Fronting, typically lasting up to the age of 3.5 years.
This process involves a sound produced near the back of the mouth (velar or palatal sounds) being replaced by a sound produced in the front of the mouth (usually an alveolar sound).
Examples of Palatal Fronting:
chair = tair
sheep = seep
bridge = brid
measure = meh-zer
juice = doos
Examples of Velar Fronting:
game = dame
pack = pat
popcorn = poptorn
sing = sin
care = there
Epenthesis (Epn) is a phonological process expected up to the age of 3 1/2 years. In Epn, a schwa (“uh” sound) or other vowel sound is added either to a consonant sound at the end of a word, or between a cluster.
Examples:
blue = buh-loo
glad = guh-lad
dog = dog-uh
bed = bed-uh
please = puh-leez
Assimilation, also called Consonant Harmony, is a phonological process present in typical development up to the age of 3 1/2 years. In Assimilation, one sound in the word is influencing another sound in the word. There are three main types of Assimilation:
Velar Assimilation (VeA) occurs when a non-velar sound is replaced with a velar sound (“k, g, ng”) due to influence of a velar sound already present within the word.
Examples:
cup = kuh-k
back = kack
dog = gog
take = cake
sang = gang
Nasal Assimilation (NA) occurs when a non-nasal sound is replaced with a nasal sound because of the influence of a nasal sound already present within the word.
Examples:
knife = nine
sunshine = nun-nine
mug = mung
ham = nam
lamb = mam
Labial Assimilation (LbA) occurs when a non-labial sound in a word is replaced by a labial sound due to the influence of a labial sound already present within the word
Examples:
bin = bim
table = bable
page = pape
make = mape
walk = wah-p
Stopping (St) is a phonological process which typically starts to eliminate at the age of 3 years, and continuing to assimilate into later developing sounds up to the age of 5 years. Stopping occurs when a fricative or affricate (types of sounds which allow air to escape the vocal tract as they are produced) is replaced by a stop (types of sounds which halt or do not allow airflow to escape the vocal tract). This most commonly impacts the first sounds within words.
Deaffrication is a subset of Stopping which describes the replacement of an affricate with a stop.
Examples:
seal = teal
sheep = teep
seven = seh-ben
cheetah = tee-tah
bridge = brid
Stridency Deletion (StD) is a phonological process seen in typical development up to the age of 3 1/2 - 4 years. In StD, a strident sound (any fricative or affricate sound) is either deleted or replaced with a non-strident sound (“h” or plosives).
Examples:
shoe = -oo
stand = tand
bus = buh
soon = hoon or oon
push = put or puh
If a strident is replaced by a plosive (stop sound), it will present the same as Stopping.
Devoicing (DeV), also called Postvocalic Devoicing, is a phonological process typically lasting up to the age 4 years. In this process, voiced consonants at the end of words (e.g., /b/ in “web”) become voiceless (e.g., /p/ in “wep”).
Examples:
dog = dock
hide = height
move = moof
bridge = britch
web = wep
Gliding (Gl), also called Liquid Gliding or Liquid Simplification, is a phonological process typically present up until the age of 4 years.
Gliding involves the replacement of a pre-vocalic liquid - /r/ or /l/ in the initial position of a word or syllable - with a glide - “w” or “y” sound. Gliding can effect /r/ or /l/ in single consonants or within clusters.
Examples:
drive = dwive
late = wate or yate
rake = wake or yake
slide = swide
taller = tah-wer or tah-yer
Cluster Reduction (CR), also called Cluster Simplification or Consonant Sequence Reduction, is a phonological process typically lasting up to the age of 4 years.
This process involves the simplification of a consonant cluster by omitting, substituting, or altering one or more of the sounds within that cluster (usually the later developing sound).
Examples:
snack = sack or nack
frog = rog, fog, or flog
bridge = bidge, ridge, or blidge
plate = pate, late, or pate
drive = dive, rive, or dwive
A subset of CR, called Coalescence also involves changing a cluster - by replacing the entire cluster with a consonant sound outside of the original sequence of sounds or cluster.
Examples:
spoon = foon
free = tee
green = ween
drum = gum
clear = dear
Please note: CR may also be present in a person’s speech as a dialectical difference rather than a phonological process.
Weak Syllable Deletion (WSD), also called Syllable Reduction or Unstressed Syllable Deletion is a phonological process which typically assimilates within the third year, lasting up to the age of 4 years.
This process effects poly-syllabic words (words with more than one syllable such as basketball, caterpillar, temperature, furniture) and involves the deletion or omission of an unstressed syllable.
Examples of weak syllable deletion:
Mississippi = miss-ippi
above = buv
umbrella = bella
basketball = bah-ball
potato = tay-doh
Please note: WSD may be present in a person’s speech as a dialectical difference rather than a phonological process.
Vocalization (voc), also called Vowelization, is a phonological process which typically starts to assimilate around the age of 3.5 years, and sometimes lasts up to the age of 5-7 years. This process is the latest to be eliminated from a child’s speech in typical development, and because of this, as well as the involvement of the pesky /r/ sound (very complex in itself), this phonological process can take longer to treat if delayed. This process is almost always seen in combination with Gliding.
In this process, the child’s /r/ or /l/ sounds are replaced by a vowel alone.
Examples:
bear = bay-uh
seal = see-uh
mother = muth-uh
large = lodge
mail = may-uh
Initial Consonant Deletion (ICD) is a phonological process not consistent with typical development and indicative of a phonological disorder if present in more than 10% of the child’s speech. In ICD, the initial consonant or cluster of a syllable or word is deleted entirely, leaving a vowel alone at the beginning of the word.
Examples:
five = ive
gate = ate
cupcake = up-ake
same = aim
kite = ite
Backing is a phonological process not present in typical development and an indication of phonological disorder if seen in more than 10% of the child’s words. Backing occurs when a consonant sound made in the front of the mouth (alveolars) is replaced by a sound made in the back of the mouth (palatal or velar). This process occurs when there are no velar or palatal sounds in the word already.
Examples:
toe = koe
doll = goll
drip = grick
light = yike
soap = shoap
Metathesis is a phonological process not present in typical development and indicative of a phonological disorder if present in more than 10% of the child’s speech. In Metathesis, two sounds or syllables (adjacent or not) are reversed within a word.
Examples:
desk = decks
toast = totes
music = zumic
wasp = wops
spaghetti = pus-ghetti
Please note: Metathesis may be present in a person’s speech as a dialectical difference rather than a phonological process.
Straong Sound Preference is a phonological process not consistent with typical development and indicative of a phonological disorder if present in more than 10% of the child’s speech. In Strong Sound Preference, one sound is overused in place of many other sounds or clusters. This process overrides other processes that may be present in the child’s words.
In this process, the overused sound may be any sound that the child overuses, and may be in any position of the word.
Example: overuse of /f/
kitty cat = fiddy fat
pretty dog = fiddy fof
big plate = fig fate
great time = fafe fime
not mine = fot fine
Glottal Replacement (GR) is a phonological process not present in typical development and an indication of phonological disorder if seen in more than 10% of the child’s words. GR involves replacement of consonant sound or cluster with a glottal stop sound.
GR usually occurs on sounds in the middle or end of the word.
Examples:
mat = ma-(glottal)
walking = wa-(glottal)-ing
school = (glottal)-ool
fruit = (glottal)-ui-(glottal)
break = (glottal)-ake