Phonological Production in Spanish-Speaking Preschoolers

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2021

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the diagnostic accuracy of traditional measures of phonological ability developed for monolingual English-speaking children with their bilingual peers in both English and Spanish. We predicted that a composite measure, derived from a combination of English and Spanish phonological measures, would result in higher diagnostic accuracy than examining the individual phonological measures of bilingual children separately by language. Method Sixty-six children, ages 3;3–6;3 (years;months), participated in this study: 29 typically developing bilingual Spanish-English–speaking children ( x = 5;3), five bilingual Spanish-English–speaking children with speech sound disorders ( x = 4;6), 26 typically developing monolingual English-speaking children ( x = 4;8), and six monolingual English-speaking children with speech sound disorders ( x = 4;9). Children were recorded producing single words using the Assessments of English and Spanish Phonology, ...

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2014

Purpose: The major purpose of this study was to examine Spanish and English phonological productions (patterns/ deviations) of typically developing bilingual preschool children. Phonological scores were compared in order to determine if significant differences exist between (a) boys and girls, (b) 4-and 5-year-olds, and/or (c) their productions of Spanish and English words. Method: Fifty-six bilingual 4-and 5-year-old children (27 boys and 29 girls) who attended Head Start programs named stimulus items for Spanish and English phonological assessment instruments that were similar in procedures and analyses. Results: Multivariate analyses indicated no significant differences for phonological scores between boys and girls or between the 2 languages. Differences between the 4-and 5-year-olds, however, were significant, with the 5-year-olds performing better than the 4-year-olds. Liquid deviations and omissions of consonants in clusters/sequences were the most frequently occurring phonological deviations. Conclusions: Phonological score differences between typically developing bilingual Spanish-English-speaking preschool boys and girls from similar backgrounds are not likely to be significant. Better phonological scores, however, can be expected for 5-year-olds than for 4-year-olds. Moreover, phonological deviation percentage scores of typically developing bilingual children for comparable Spanish and English assessment instruments are likely to be similar. Disclosure: A published test by the second author (Hodson Assessment of Phonological Patterns-Third Edition; Hodson, 2004) and computer software (Hodson Computerized Analysis of Phonological Patterns; Hodson, 2003) were used in this study. The other instrument (revised version of the Assessment of Phonological Processes-Spanish) is unpublished.

Perspectives on School-Based Issues, 2015

Journal of phonetics & audiology, 2015

Applied Psycholinguistics, 2011

Individual differences in abilities to form, access, and hone phonological representations of words are implicated in the development of oral and written language. This study addressed three important gaps in the literature concerning measurement of individual differences in phonological representation. First, we empirically examined the dimensionality of phonological representation abilities. Second, we empirically compared how well typical measures index various representation-related phonological processing abilities. Third, we supply data on Spanish phonological representation abilities of incipient Spanish-English bilingual children to address the need for information on phonological representation across languages. Specifically, nine measures of accessibility to and precision of phonological presentations were administered to 129 preschool children in the United States. Confirmatory factor analyses validated three separate but correlated a priori phonological processing abilities, that is, efficiency of accessing phonological codes, precision of phonological codes as reflected in speech production, and precision of phonological codes as reflected in speech perception. Most prototypic measures were strong indicators of their respective representation-related phonological ability. We discuss how the current data in Spanish compares to limited data in English, and the implications for the organization of phonological representations abilities.

Journal of Research …, 2011

This longitudinal study investigated the relationship between oral language abilities and phonological awareness in 85 typically developing, Spanish-English preschool children (average age in preschool was 3 years, 9 months). Receptive language skills in Spanish and English were assessed in the autumn and spring during the children's 2 years in Head Start for a total of four measurement occasions. Phonological awareness was assessed during the spring of children's kindergarten year. Results indicated that English receptive vocabulary at the end of preschool predicted English phonological awareness abilities in kindergarten, whereas Spanish vocabulary was observed to have a negative predictive relationship with children's English phonological awareness abilities. However, after controlling for English vocabulary, Spanish vocabulary no longer had an effect on English phonological awareness. Broad receptive language abilities in English and Spanish did not predict later English phonological awareness skills.

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 2017

One of the most challenging aspects of assessing the phonological development of bilingual children is finding a method that is both ecologically valid and informative. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether spontaneous speech samples from an English-Spanish bilingual child give clinically relevant information through an analysis of phonological complexity. In this single subject case study, the researchers collect spontaneous speech samples from a 5-year-old, English-Spanish bilingual child. The speech samples are transcribed and evaluated to assess phonemic accuracy and levels of phonological complexity in both target languages. The results of this study indicate that spontaneous speech samples may be effective in evaluating speech sound complexity of production for bilingual children and add to previous studies that have shown similar findings.

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2018

This study examined accuracy on syllable-final (coda) consonants in newly-learned English-like nonwords to determine whether school-aged bilingual children may be more vulnerable to making errors on English-only codas than their monolingual, English-speaking peers, even at a stage in development when phonological accuracy in productions of familiar words is high. Bilingual Spanish-English-speaking second-graders (age 7-9) with typical development (n=40) were matched individually with monolingual peers on age, sex, and speech skills. Participants learned to name sea monsters as part of five computerized word learning tasks. Dependent t-tests revealed bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children in producing codas unique to English; however, the groups demonstrated equivalent levels of accuracy on codas that occur in both Spanish and English. Results suggest that, even at high levels of English proficiency, bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children may demonstrate lower accuracy than their monolingual English-speaking peers on targets that pattern differently in their two languages. Differences between a bilingual's two languages can be used to reveal targets that may be more vulnerable to error, which could be a result of cross-linguistic effects or more limited practice with English phonology.

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 2008

Clinical linguistics & …, 2012

A crosslinguistic study is underway concerning children's protracted phonological development (PPD, i.e., speech sound disorders). The current paper reports pilot Spanish data for this study from two 4-year-old boys with PPD. The purposes of the pilot study were to (1) develop and evaluate a word list for elicitation that could be used across Spanish dialects and that sufficiently sampled Spanish word lengths, stress patterns, word shapes and phonemes, and (2) to derive hypotheses for the larger study, based on patterns found in these children's speech, and a review of the literature. The two speakers showed some developmental patterns reported for other languages (e.g. constraints on production of liquids and word-initial consonants in unstressed syllables) but also patterns that may reflect Spanish phonological inventories, allophony and frequencies. These data helped consolidate the Spanish word list for elicitation and led to questions for the ongoing study concerning word structure, multisyllabic words, liquids, fricatives and vowel sequences.