Developing Speech and Language Skills - Noel's ESL eBook Library

Phoneme FactoryTable 13.1 Examples of the error pattern ‘approximant cluster reduction’ where theapproximant is deletedTarget word Child’s pronunciation Child’s pronunciation if combined with CSVpram pam bamplay pay baybrick bick bickblue boo boocrash cash gashclaw caw goregrease geese geeseglow go gofree fee veeflag fag vagTable 13.2 Examples of the error pattern ‘approximant cluster reduction’ where theapproximant is retainedTarget word Child’s pronunciation Child’s pronunciation with gliding of approximantpram ram wamplay lay jaybrick rick wickblue loo youcrash rash washclaw law yourgrease reese weeseglow low yofree ree weeflag lag yagDevelopment of approximant clustersMost children produce approximant clusters by the time they are four years old. Theclusters may not be completely accurate until the child is five-and-a-half or six years. So‘flag’ might sound like ‘fyag’, ‘crash’ might sound like ‘cwash’ and ‘brick’ more like ‘bwick’.In typical development, children sometimes go through a phase of saying the clusters, butwith a vowel between them; for example, play ‘puhlay’, brown ‘burown’, green, ‘gureen’and floor ‘fuhloor’. They then go on to master the accurate pronunciation.130