The role of linguistic perception in later phonological development

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study tested the hypothesis that certain sound substitutions in older, normally developing children are perceptually based substitutions, typified by poor discrimination, while others are phonetic substitutions – phonemic distinctions that are maintained by the child in a phonetically non-adult fashion. The perception and production of English voiceless fricatives in twelve normally developing monolingual children aged 3;2–5;6 was investigated using a picture-pointing task, audio recordings, and acoustic analysis. Results include significant correlations between production and perception scores for /θ/ but not /s/ and significant acoustic differences in substitutions of [θ] for /s/ (versus productions of [θ] for /θ/) but not in substitutions of [f] or [s] for /θ/. It is suggested that substitutions for /θ/, with the correlated poor discrimination, may indicate a non-adult phonemic representation, while substitutions for /s/ tend to have a motoric basis in older children. Stages in the acquisition of /θ/ are hypothesized.