Child Phonological Development

We present the typological approach to child language research. The typological approach places language diversity at the centre of acquisition research, thereby limiting arbitrary adjustments to theory and practice. We apply the typological approach to Ingram's (2002) measures of whole-word phonological complexity (PMLU) and proximity (PWP). Our generalised PMLUg measure takes into account crosslinguistic variation in word status, including complex predicates and words without vowels. We analysed conversational data from Dutch, English, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Xi'iùy to determine whether two-year-old children target and produce words with significant between-language differences in phonological complexity. We found significant between-language differences in PMLUg for the target and produced words, but not PWPg. Comparing the complexity of the children's words with the complexity of target words reveals their growth potentials along the syllable and consonant dimensions. Our study begins the cumulative investigation of the features that determine whole-word phonological complexity and proximity crosslinguistically.

This book compiles original studies investigating crosslinguistic child phonological development in typical and atypical settings, that is, protolanguage phonology. The chapters address topics and issues not widely or exhaustively reported in the literature, such as research on under-represented languages and foci of interest, as well as information that has remained little-known to the field. It documents recent developments on typically developing populations, and atypical developmental speech in children with autism, developmental language disorder affecting speech, childhood apraxia of speech, phonological assessment and intervention, phonological awareness in (a)typical contexts affecting literacy, and motor speech analysis in speech sound disorders. The book will be of interest to linguists and academic researchers, as well as postgraduate students who are investigating child language acquisition in monolingual settings.

This edited book is a collection of studies on protolanguage phonology, referring to the development of children's autonomous linguistic systems from their first meaningful forms to complete cognitive and articulatory acquisition of language. The volume comprises chapters on child bilingual phonological development, understood as the acquisition or use of more than one linguistic code, whether actual languages, dialects, or communication modes, in an array of contexts. Such contexts include endogenous and exogenous bilingualism, heritage language, bilectalism, trilingualism, and typical and atypical use. The contributed works here will be of interest to researchers and postgraduate students investigating language acquisition in bi-/multilingual settings, as well as those working on child phonological development across a variety of languages.

me to apply for all of those scholarships and awards (it paid off!). I enjoyed our countless hours of discussions related to school work, the profession, and life in general (all while incorporating the smoothie and snack runs). Those are my fondest memories. I look forward to our continued collaborations and future projects together. Onward and forward! Much appreciation is due to the other members of my committee. Thank you to Kenneth Burke, who provided a unique perspective to my study and much needed feedback. Ken, I truly admire your wisdom and appreciate your guidance, specifically in the area of voice disorders (an area that is my first, but now second, true love). I am indebted to Marlene Schommer-Aikins, who taught me more than I ever thought I could learn about statistics. Marlo, I value your stellar classroom instruction, patience, and long distance phone conversations about statistical analyses more than you will ever know. I am grateful for Kathy Strattman, whose suggestions and advice always brought a fresh new perspective to my writing. Kathy, your words of encouragement always came at a time when I needed them the most. Thank you to Anthony DiLollo, who provided much needed expertise in the area of methodology. Tony, I enjoyed our many visits in your office discussing research. I also want to thank Chang Liu, who served on my committee in the beginning. Chang, I learned so much from your field question over speech perception that I was able to teach an introductory course in speech and hearing science with confidence. v Several other faculty and staff in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wichita State University need recognition for their time and commitment towards my success. I would like to thank Rosalind Scudder for introducing me to our wonderful field. Ro, I will never forget our first meeting in 2003 when I came from the music department and you told me all about speech-language pathology. I also would like to thank Kathy Coufal, who worked with me on my unusual degree plan that included a dovetailed Master's degree and a Clinical Fellowship Year. Kathy, I still cannot believe I was able to get through it! Much gratitude also is in store to Johanna Hutmacher and Jaymie Faust for all of their "behind the scenes" work. Johanna and Jaymie, thank you both for your commitment to helping me with all administrative tasks. I would like to recognize several students who made this possible. Many thanks to Lacey Stratton, Natasha Reyes-Boom, Veronica Lozano, and Karina De la Cruz, who spent hours assisting with testing, analysis, and scoring on this project. Lacey, Tasha, Veronica, and Karina, I appreciate your time and dedication to my dissertation! Without your help, I never could have finished on time. I also would like to thank all of the undergraduate and graduate students who were the "guinea pigs" of my classroom instruction. These students were with me in the beginning as I, in many cases, fumbled my way through PowerPoint slides and lectures. You all watched me grow as a teacher and helped me to realize how much I will forever enjoy teaching. To my fellow doctoral cohort: Mark Shaver, Yori Kanekama, Meng-ju Tsai, Scott Taylor, Masako Maeda, Daiquirie Crumrine, Phil Sechtem, thank you so much for the words of encouragement, doc student lunches, unending jokes, and strong support. I will cherish our moments of laughter, sorrow, and everything in between. I wish all of you the best of luck in your future endeavors. vi A very special thank you goes to Karen Hubbard, my clinical supervisor in the school setting. Karen, you taught me to "think outside the box" in the professional world and helped to build my confidence as a practitioner. I enjoyed my time working with you and I hope to stay in touch and collaborate with you again in the future. All that I have done would not be possible without the love and support of my family. To my parents, Raul and Sylvia Prezas, thank you for setting such high standards for education and success. Mom, I still cannot believe that we finished our doctorate degrees at the same time! Dad, I've decided that you and I both have "the heart of an eagle." To my brother, John Prezas: thanks for your phone calls and encouragement. Maybe I'll appear in the acknowledgements of your dissertation someday! Words alone cannot express the immense gratitude and love that I have for my best friend and partner, Mark Simmons. Mark, you deserve the highest award for helping me through the past five years. You never complained when I had to attend extra meetings for class, pull an "allnighter," or spend weeks at a time sitting in front of the computer to meet a deadline. You always had a smile on your face and a warm meal waiting for me at the end of each day. Without you, none of this would have been possible. "Te quiero para siempre." Finally, I would like to thank the teachers, staff, parents, and students from the Child Start centers of Wichita. Your warm hearts, time, and generosity is greatly appreciated. To the children who participated in this project: you are truly what it's all about.

Approximately 10 percent of Latino preschoolers are at risk for developing communication problems unrelated to second language acquisition. Many of these children are Spanish-speaking and have difficulties in producing speech sounds in their native language. One of the services afforded Latino preschoolers by speech-language pathologists is the assessment and treatment of phonological disorders. Providing these services is a challenge because many Latino children served are Spanish-speaking. The purpose of this paper is to provide normative data on phonological development and disorders in Spanish-speaking children and to briefly outline assessment and intervention techniques. Normative data are presented with regard to common and uncommon phonological patterns in Spanish-speaking preschool children. The paper then offers four principles to be followed when assessing the phonological skills of Spanish-speaking children: (1) use an assessment tool designed specifically to assess Spanish-speaking children; (2) take the child's dialect into account; (3) determine if the child's use of speech sounds is sufficiently different from normal development to warrant intervention; (4) determine treatment direction. The paper concludes with a discussion of treating phonological disorders in bilingual speakers. Contains 14 references. (EV)

The researchers examined how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in a small northern California school district assessed Spanish speaking English learning (EL) Latino children suspected of language impairments. Specifically we sought to (1) determine whether SLPs adhered to federal, state, and professional guidelines during initial assessments and (2) identify tests and measures used by SLPs during language assessments. The researchers conducted a records abstraction review of 88 speech-language assessment reports of Spanish speaking EL Latino children. The reports were examined for parameters of best practice as outlined in recent studies. Results indicated that for each report the SLP responsible for assessing the child failed to consider at least one best practice parameter. Although impossible to determine at this stage, it is likely that many of these children were erroneously assessed and subsequently placed in speech-language programs. Findings support the notion that many EL Latino children continue to be inappropriately assessed for language impairments.

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system.

In this paper, we examine the English phonotactics of a two-year-old child in Nigeria who uses Yoruba at home and simultaneously acquires English. Using Optimality Theory, we analyse data of words with no complex onsets and data with complex onsets. We present the constraints: *COMPLEX ONSET, MAX-I.O, DEP-I.O, and NO CODA. We observe among others that in the data set of words with complex onsets, there is no critical ranking between *COMPLEX ONSET and DEP-I.O. This study shows that sonority plays a significant role in consonant cluster reduction especially in child phonology.

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, ...

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.

Typical morpho-phonological measures of children’s speech realizations used in the literature depend linearly on their components. Examples are the proportion of consonants correct, the mean length of utterance and the phonological mean length of utterance. Because of their linear dependence on their components, these measures change in proportion to their component changes between speech realizations. However, there are instances in which variable speech realizations need to be differentiated better. Therefore, a measure which is more sensitive to its components than linear measures is needed. Here, entropy is proposed as such a measure. The sensitivity of entropy is compared analytically to that of linear measures, deriving ranges in component values inside which entropy is guaranteed to be more sensitive than the linear measures. The analysis is complemented by computing the entropy in two children’s English speech for different categories of word complexity and comparing its sen...

In this study, it was postulated that typically developing (i.e., normally developing without incidence of a speech or language delay or disorder) Spanish/Englishspeaking children ages 4 to 5 years old would show different articulation productions and phonological patterns in both languages. Sixteen participants from Florida were tested with Spanish and English articulation and phonology tests. For articulation, two manner or articulation comparisons were found to be significant (i.e., plosives and liquids/glides). In addition, two phonological patterns (i.e., stopping and velar fronting) were significantly different. Normative articulation and phonological Spanish and English data were obtained and should be useful for today's public school speech-language pathologists. Further research should include normative data for bilingual children with articulation and/or phonological disorders to develop more appropriate treatments. In addition, it is recommended that other languages be investigated as the nation is also experiencing growth in languages beyond Spanish.

Empirical work has shown that maternal education is related to children’s language outcomes, especially in the societal language, among Spanish-English bilingual children growing up in the U.S. However, no study thus far has assessed the links between maternal cultural orientation and children’s speech sound production. This paper explores whether mothers’ orientation to American (acculturation) and Mexican culture (enculturation) and overall linear acculturation are related to children’s accuracy of production of consonants, of different sound classes, and of phonemes shared and unshared between languages in both English and Spanish at age 4;6 (4 years and 6 months). The results reveal a link between maternal acculturation and children’s segmental accuracy in English, but no relation was found between mothers’ enculturation and children’s speech sound production in Spanish. We interpreted the results in English as suggesting that more American-oriented mothers may have been using m...

In this study, it was postulated that typically developing (i.e., normally developing without incidence of a speech or language delay or disorder) Spanish/Englishspeaking children ages 4 to 5 years old would show different articulation productions and phonological patterns in both languages. Sixteen participants from Florida were tested with Spanish and English articulation and phonology tests. For articulation, two manner or articulation comparisons were found to be significant (i.e., plosives and liquids/glides). In addition, two phonological patterns (i.e., stopping and velar fronting) were significantly different. Normative articulation and phonological Spanish and English data were obtained and should be useful for today's public school speech-language pathologists. Further research should include normative data for bilingual children with articulation and/or phonological disorders to develop more appropriate treatments. In addition, it is recommended that other languages be investigated as the nation is also experiencing growth in languages beyond Spanish.

In this study, it was postulated that typically developing (i.e., normally developing without incidence of a speech or language delay or disorder) Spanish/Englishspeaking children ages 4 to 5 years old would show different articulation productions and phonological patterns in both languages. Sixteen participants from Florida were tested with Spanish and English articulation and phonology tests. For articulation, two manner or

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition / Volume 12 / Issue 02 / April 2009, pp 259 272 DOI: 10.1017/S1366728908003994, Published online: 23 April 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1366728908003994 How to cite this article: CHRISTINA E. GILDERSLEEVE-NEUMANN, ELIZABETH D. PEÑA, BARBARA L. DAVIS and ELLEN S. KESTER (2009). Effects on L1 during early acquisition of L2: Speech changes in Spanish at rst English contact. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, pp 259-272 doi:10.1017/S1366728908003994 Request Permissions : Click here

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate typical Spanish–English speech sound development longitudinally in a group of bilingual preschoolers enrolled in a Head Start Program and to examine the extent to which such development is linked to language proficiency. The study also aimed to identify whether speech development is related cross-linguistically and to improve our understanding of error patterns in this population. Method Thirty-five bilingual preschool children produced single-word speech samples in Spanish and English both at the beginning of their first and their second year in a Head Start Program. Conversational samples in both languages were also collected at these data points to calculate mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and thus assess the children's linguistic proficiency. The phonetically transcribed speech samples were compared over time in terms of segmental accuracy measures and error pattern frequencies. Correlation analyses were run to ex...

The Assessment of Phonological Disabilities measure was administered to 39 normally developing children and 10 speec:4-de1ayed children who were Spanish speaking, of Puerto Rican descent, and ranging in age from 3 to 4. Data were analyzed by compartng phonological processes nail:at the "standard referent" and the "Puerto Rican referent." The following syllabic and substitution processes were examined: final consonant deletion, velar fronting, stopping, palatal fronting, liquid simplification, assimilation, cluster reduction, and weak syllable deletion. Results with the normally developing children indicated that taking dialect into account alters the results with all syllabic processes. Results were altered most dramatically with final consonant deletion and liquid simplification. Results with the speech-delayed children indicated that taking dialect into co:sideration alters results with a majority of the phonological processes, most dramatically with final consonant deletion. The remediation process for two commonly occurring syllabic processes (initial consonant deletion and weak syllable deletion was then analyzed with six of the children. (JDD)

Purpose To examine the accuracy of early-, middle-, and late-developing (EML) sounds in Spanish-English bilingual children and their monolingual peers. Method Twenty-four typically developing children, age 3–4 years, were included in this study: 8 bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children, 8 monolingual Spanish speakers, and 8 monolingual English speakers. Single-word speech samples were obtained to examine (a) differences on the accuracy of EML sounds between Spanish-English bilingual children and monolingual Spanish and monolingual English children and (b) the developmental trend on the accuracy of EML sounds within languages for Spanish-English bilingual children and monolingual Spanish and monolingual English children. Results Findings support those of Shriberg (1993) for English-speaking children and suggest possible EML categories for monolingual Spanish-speaking children and bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children. Conclusions These exploratory findings indicate the nee...

Approximately 10 percent of Latino preschoolers are at risk for developing communication problems unrelated to second language acquisition. Many of these children are Spanish-speaking and have difficulties in producing speech sounds in their native language. One of the services afforded Latino preschoolers by speech-language pathologists is the assessment and treatment of phonological disorders. Providing these services is a challenge because many Latino children served are Spanish-speaking. The purpose of this paper is to provide normative data on phonological development and disorders in Spanish-speaking children and to briefly outline assessment and intervention techniques. Normative data are presented with regard to common and uncommon phonological patterns in Spanish-speaking preschool children. The paper then offers four principles to be followed when assessing the phonological skills of Spanish-speaking children: (1) use an assessment tool designed specifically to assess Spanish-speaking children; (2) take the child's dialect into account; (3) determine if the child's use of speech sounds is sufficiently different from normal development to warrant intervention; (4) determine treatment direction. The paper concludes with a discussion of treating phonological disorders in bilingual speakers. Contains 14 references. (EV)

This study characterizes the phonological patterns in phonologically disordered Spanishspeaking children who speak the Puerto Rican dialect. A single-word assessment was used to describe the mean percentage-of-occurrence and standard deviation of phonological processes and the number and type of nontargeted process errors in 54 3-and 4-year-olds. Analyses were made in reference to the Puerto Rican dialect of Spanish, yielding a number of specific patterns that characterized the speech of these children.

A review of recent research and professional guidelines on the assessment of bilingual children with communication disorders identified some emerging themes. All the languages that a child is exposed to (including the home language/s) require assessment since proficiency across the different languages used reflects the child's ability to maintain social contacts and access education. Language mixing is a natural, typical and fundamental aspect of bilingual discourse that has no negative effect on bilingual language acquisition. Limited data on normal bilingual language acquisition makes differential diagnosis between language disorder and language difference very difficult. Consequently, bilingual children are at risk for being misdiagnosed as having an impairment. Assessment strategies are described that provide alternative approaches to the use of normative data for the identification of communication disorders. Research is needed to determine the effect of language pair and language learning context on bilingual language acquisition and to ensure valid identification of bilingual children with communication disorder.

Direct recognition of phonemes in speaker independent speech recognition systems still cannot guarantee good enough recognition results. But grouping phonemes at first then trying to recognize the phoneme itself is a promising field. On the other hand wavelets are widely used in speech and speaker recognition systems, this is motivated by the ability of wavelet coefficients to capture important time and frequency features. In this work the effect of the wavelet filter type on the efficiency of a phoneme recognition system is investigated (specifically fricatives). The Probabilistic neural network was used as a pattern matching stage for its well known and power full ability in solving classification problems. It was found that the Daubechies wavelet family (generally from db15 to db23) is a good candidate for a fricatives phoneme recognition system that is based on wavelets as a feature extraction stage.

Type of surface-level speech errors can be diagnostically valuable information to identify children with speech sound disorder (SSD). There is a lack of such information for bilingual children, which makes identifying bilingual children with SSD a significant challenge. This article reports on error production in Korean-English bilingual (KEB) children. Methods: Single-word samples were collected from 52 KEB children aged between 3;0 and 7;11. The word productions were analysed for error and compared to the existing date from monolingual English-speaking (ME) and monolingual Korean-speaking (MK) children. Results: While some children's error production was similar to what would be expected in respective monolingual children, other children produced errors that would be considered delay, atypical or even advanced for their monolingual counterparts in both of their languages. No reliable factors could be identified to determine the characteristics associated with delay, atypical or advanced error production compared to monolingual children. Conclusions: There are qualitative differences in phonological development between monolingual and bilingual children. The clinical use of available monolingual normative data is likely to lead to an inaccurate diagnosis of SSD. Small cohort studies in bilingual phonological development should not be taken as normative data in clinical practice due to heterogeneity.

Type of surface-level speech errors can be diagnostically valuable information to identify children with speech sound disorder (SSD). There is a lack of such information for bilingual children, which makes identifying bilingual children with SSD a significant challenge. This article reports on error production in Korean-English bilingual (KEB) children. Methods: Single-word samples were collected from 52 KEB children aged between 3;0 and 7;11. The word productions were analysed for error and compared to the existing date from monolingual English-speaking (ME) and monolingual Korean-speaking (MK) children. Results: While some children's error production was similar to what would be expected in respective monolingual children, other children produced errors that would be considered delay, atypical or even advanced for their monolingual counterparts in both of their languages. No reliable factors could be identified to determine the characteristics associated with delay, atypical or advanced error production compared to monolingual children. Conclusions: There are qualitative differences in phonological development between monolingual and bilingual children. The clinical use of available monolingual normative data is likely to lead to an inaccurate diagnosis of SSD. Small cohort studies in bilingual phonological development should not be taken as normative data in clinical practice due to heterogeneity.

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 phonolo...

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur ...

The nature of speech sound development and disorders in bilinguals is complex, in part, because of the interdependence between languages. That interdependence, however, appears to be advantageous to bilinguals in that it bootstraps the languages such that speech sound development is similar, although not identical, to that of monolinguals. The same principle also applies to bilinguals with speech sound disorders. From a longitudinal perspective, speech sound acquisition in typically developing bilinguals and those with speech sound disorders is not remarkably different than that of monolinguals. However, speech sound skills are neither identical across the languages nor equally distributed across the languages given each language's phonotactic constraints. Thus, assessing speech sound skills in bilinguals is more complex than that for monolinguals. Typically, standardized assessments are not available for differential diagnosis, and informal measures are required. Intervention for bilinguals with speech sound disorders likely will need to occur in all languages.

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system.

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system.

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.

Typical morpho-phonological measures of children's speech realizations used in the literature depend linearly on their components. Examples are the proportion of consonants correct, the mean length of utterance and the phonological mean length of utterance. Because of their linear dependence on their components, these measures change in proportion to their component changes between speech realizations. However , there are instances in which variable speech realizations need to be differentiated better. Therefore, a measure which is more sensitive to its components than linear measures is needed. Here, entropy is proposed as such a measure. The sensitivity of entropy is compared analytically to that of linear measures, deriving ranges in component values inside which entropy is guaranteed to be more sensitive than the linear measures. The analysis is complemented by computing the entropy in two children's English speech for different categories of word complexity and comparing its sensitivity to that of linear measures. One of the children is a bilingual typically developing child at age 3;0 and the other child is a monolingual child with speech sound disorders at age 5;11. The analysis and applications demonstrate the usefulness of the measure for evaluating speech realizations and its relative advantages over linear measures.

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.

The study of bilingual language acquisition is a daunting area of research. First, there is the extensive number of possible language combinations. For example, suppose we restrict our
initial investigations into the one hundred most linguistically diverse languages in the world. The permutation of those languages leads to 4,950 bilingual contexts. Next, each of these
bilingual contexts needs to be examined for a wide range of research variables. There is the issue of when the child becomes bilingual, i.e. whether acquisition of the languages is simultaneous or dual, where simultaneous means both languages are present from birth, and dual means that
the second language begins acquisition later, say from age three on. If the latter, there is the variable of which language is acquired earlier. Then we need to consider the contexts of the
input in these bilingual contexts. Does the child hear one and/or both languages from a single speaker or multiple speakers? There are design issues concerning the number of necessary participants, and whether to conduct case studies or cross sectional studies. We also have the various components of language (e.g., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) and the range of research questions, some of which are discussed below, to consider. When the math is done, the number of possible bilingual studies approaches one million. From this perspective, every study on bilingual language acquisition is one in a million!

Typical development patterns in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Comparison of first and second language acquisition. Influence of biological, social, and cultural factors. Techniques for collecting and analyzing acquisition data (fieldwork projects). Evaluation of competing theories of acquisition.

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of typical acquisition of the Mexican Spanish stop-spirant alternation in bilingual Spanish-English speaking children and to shed light on the theoretical debate over which sound is the underlying form in the stop-spirant allophonic relationship. We predicted that bilingual children would acquire knowledge of this allophonic relationship by the time they reach age 5;0 (years;months) and would demonstrate higher accuracy on the spirants, indicating their role as the underlying phoneme. This quasi-longitudinal study examined children's single word samples in Spanish from ages 2;4-8;2. Samples were phonetically transcribed and analyzed for accuracy, substitution errors and acoustically for intensity ratios. Bilingual children demonstrated overall higher accuracy on the voiced stops as compared to the spirants. Differences in substitution errors across ages were found and acoustic analyses corroborated perceptual findings. The clinical implication of this research is that bilingual children may be in danger of overdiagnosis of speech sound disorders because acquisition of this allophonic rule in bilinguals appears to differ from what has been found in previous studies examining monolingual Spanish speakers.

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of typical acquisition of the Mexican Spanish stop-spirant alternation in bilingual Spanish-English speaking children and to shed light on the theoretical debate over which sound is the underlying form in the stop-spirant allophonic relationship. We predicted that bilingual children would acquire knowledge of this allophonic relationship by the time they reach age 5;0 (years;months) and would demonstrate higher accuracy on the spirants, indicating their role as the underlying phoneme. This quasi-longitudinal study examined children's single word samples in Spanish from ages 2;4-8;2. Samples were phonetically transcribed and analyzed for accuracy, substitution errors and acoustically for intensity ratios. Bilingual children demonstrated overall higher accuracy on the voiced stops as compared to the spirants. Differences in substitution errors across ages were found and acoustic analyses corroborated perceptual findings. The clinical implication of this research is that bilingual children may be in danger of overdiagnosis of speech sound disorders because acquisition of this allophonic rule in bilinguals appears to differ from what has been found in previous studies examining monolingual Spanish speakers.

Ten Swedish-Arabic children with severe language impairment (LI) and 10 matched controls were tested with Swedish and Arabic phonology tests. The children with severe LI displayed signi cantly more of both syntagmatic and paradigmatic processes in both languages. The results are also discussed in relation to monolingual children in Swedish and Arabic, both children with a normal language development as well as with a language impairment. Both groups of Swedish-Arabic children tended to develop their two languages in the same way as monolingual children in each language, with some exceptions. Both groups had substantial lexical problems, especially in Arabic. Exposure to Swedish was an important variable relative to number of syntagmatic processes. The importance of assessing both languages is emphasized.

The phonology of a group of Spanish-Catalan children with specifi c language impairment (SLI, n = 5), who had been analysed at age 3; 10, is now analysed at age 4; 09 and compared with two control groups: an age-matched control (n = 5) and a language level control (measured using the mean length of utterance by words; n = 5). The children with SLI continue to show a delay in the acquisition of segments, syllabic structures and in the use of the simplifi cation processes, but not in word structures, compared with their age-matched controls. Children with SLI also display signifi cant diff erences compared with their language level controls, but not in the same areas as observed at age 3: the diff erences are now in nasals and liquids at the segmental level, and in CCV, CVC and other complex structures at the syllabic level. There are also some simplifi cation processes that seem to be more prevalent in these children than in their language level controls: absence of trill, cluster reductions and consonant deletions. The results enable us to interpret SLI as more than a delayed development and to show the diff erences in the profi les over time.

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system.