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

Phoneme FactoryAll four childrenThe nature of the difficultyIn all the above cases the children are substituting sounds and/or missing some soundscompletely. These are usually not random substitutions or omissions, however. Withcareful analysis of the speech of these children, patterns can be found.The first two children, Ravi and Josh, use developmental error patterns that are oftenfound in younger children but not usually in those of school age. Children who persistin using such patterns have delayed phonological development. Developmental errorpatterns are described in Chapter 4.The second two, Emily and Harry, use some patterns that are found in typicallydeveloping children, but they also use non-developmental error patterns, those notfound in typically developing children. Children such as these are likely to need theadvice of an SLT for speech assessment, diagnosis and planning intervention.The phonological systemThe acquisition of intelligible speech is not just about learning to say sounds. Childrenneed to learn how sounds are organised in the language. The resources in this book aredesigned for use with children who have difficulty developing the complete system ofsound contrasts that are needed to be intelligible speakers. The phonological system ofEnglish is described in detail in Chapter 2.18