Phonological Processes: Definition, Examples, and Therapy
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What are phonological processes and why do children use them?
Hello, everyone. This is Keri Clark with the Speech and Language Kids dot com. You are listening to episode number 23 of the Speech and Language Kids podcast. Today, our topic is phonological processes, and we are just going to be doing a quick speech spotlight. So this is just going to be a short episode just talking about phonological processes and what you can do about them. So let's jump right into the topic. So what is a phonological process? When children are young, they hear the speech sounds of the language that's used around them. They hear adults talking. They take in all of those sounds. But a child is not yet able to produce all of those sounds. That would be too overwhelming for that young child's brain to have to understand and use all of the different speech sounds.
So to overcome this, the child's brain will create rules that simplify speech sounds and make words easier to say. And those rules are called phonological processes. If you're lost, hang with me. I'm going to give you some examples here. This is kind of a complex subject that doesn't exactly make a whole lot of sense right at first. So stick with me here. So let's give an example of one of those rules, one of those phonological processes. So for example, sounds that are produced in the back of the mouth like K and G are pretty hard for young children to say.
How does a child’s brain simplify sounds like /k/ and /g/?
So many children will simplify this by creating a rule or a phonological process that says if a sound is produced in the back of the mouth, I will change that to be produced in the front of the mouth because those sounds are easier. So therefore, K becomes T, that K sound moves forward to the T sound, and G becomes D. This is why it's very common for young children to say titty tat instead of kitty cat. So that's an example of a phonological process. It's a rule that that child has created to simplify adult language so that it's something that they can manage. Now, keep in mind that these rules are out of the control of the child. So your one-year-old is not deciding that he's going to drop all consonants at the end of words or change those sounds around.
His brain is doing that for him, and he's probably not even aware that he's doing it, okay? So phonological processes are rules that are set in that brain. That's the way the child understands language or speech. I'm sorry, that's the way the child understands those speech sounds, and that's just the way it is. Now, are phonological processes normal? Absolutely. All children use some phonological processes when they are young. This is a very normal part of learning to speak. And there's lots of different kinds of phonological process that we see in typically developing children or children that are just developing speech normally. So here are some examples of some of those processes and some of those rules that you might see children doing.
So one of those rules is called cluster reduction. So that would be if you have a word with two consonants together, the child will usually drop off one of those consonants. So instead of spot, they might say pot. Or instead of spoon, they would say poon. So they're just going to drop off the harder sound and leave the easier sound. We hear that all the time in young kids. Another one is reduplication. And that would be if there is a, let's say there's a two-syllable word, the child will say the first syllable.
Which normal phonological processes (e.g., cluster reduction, reduplication) should I expect to hear?
And then instead of saying the second syllable, they will say the first syllable again. So instead of water, they would say wawa. Or instead of bottle, they would say baba. And that's where a lot of the... kind of the baby talk that we that we all do that's a lot where this comes from is a lot of kids are doing this reduplication um so you know instead of mommy you say mama and so we kind of we kind of adopt that as adopt that as well when we're talking to young children so that one is reduplication another phonological process that is very normal for young children is weak syllable deletion so that would be if you have a longer word let's say you have a three syllable word
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are phonological processes and why do children use them?
0:00–1:13
2
How does a child’s brain simplify sounds like /k/ and /g/?
1:13–3:06
3
Which normal phonological processes (e.g., cluster reduction, reduplication) should I expect to hear?
3:06–6:09
4
At what ages should specific phonological processes disappear?
6:09–8:43
5
What are atypical or idiosyncratic phonological processes that signal a disorder?
8:43–9:50
6
How can I identify initial consonant deletion and other red‑flag patterns?
9:50–12:00
7
What step‑by‑step therapy approach helps a child overwrite a phonological rule?
12:00–13:23
8
Where can I download a free guide and activity ideas for phonology therapy?
13:23–13:29