Phonological (speech) development of children between ages of 2.5 and 5.7 (transcription of speech)

Alja Marin (2013) Phonological (speech) development of children between ages of 2.5 and 5.7 (transcription of speech). Diploma thesis.

Preview

PDF Download (2383Kb)

Abstract

Speech and language development is one of the important areas of development of each individual. It develops within the specified norms – with some the progress is slower and with some faster. The biggest leap in the speech development is in the preschool period. During development there are certain speech, language or phonological disorders, which are of different origin. Speech disorders that occur can be kinds of omissions, substitutions and distortions of sounds. Phonological processes that occur in the majority of children are the substitution processes, deletion processes and assimilation processes and there are several subtypes. The development of speech is affected by various factors including language environment (stimulating, inhibiting) and the specifics of the language depending on the environment (urban, suburban) in which the child lives. In the empirical part I focused on the analysis of the speech of preschool children aged between 2.5 and 3.5, 3.6 and 4.6, 4.7 and 5.7 and I have divided them into three age groups. The area of phonological development in Slovenia has not been researched properly. The research was conducted within the context of the international project Cross-Linguistic Study of protracted phonological (speech) development in children, and as part of this I recorded the children and wrote word pronunciation (transcription). A sample of children has been chosen (15 girls and 15 boys – each age group contains 5 girls and 5 boys) and they are talking in urban colloquial language of Maribor. In the analysis I was interested in the realization of words, phonemes, groups of phonemes (consonant clusters), and phonological processes that occur in speech. Further analysis was focused on the development of the Slovenian language phonemes according to children's age and phonological processes, which are the most frequently occurred at a certain age group and when certain processes are diminished. The results showed that the linguistic environment in which the child lives and language, which the child adopts, affect the proper implementation of words. Clarity, accuracy and matching the whole word with the target word are improving with age. The results of the realization of phonemes showed that first develop nasal sounds (/m/, /n/), liquids (/l/) and glides (/j/), then stops (/p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/), fricatives (/v/, /x/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /z/. /ʒ/), vibrant (/r/) and affricates (/ʦ/, /ʧ/). I have found out that the presence of phonological processes is higher with the younger children than the older children. With younger children phonological processes appear at the same time, while with age they disappear and become more individual.

Actions (login required)