Intro to Phonological Processes

Have you heard your child’s speech-language pathologist mention phonological processes? If so, your child may be using these error patterns to simplify their speech. Phonological processes are like shortcuts children use to make talking easier as their speech is developing. It is normal for young kids to speak using these processes up until a certain age. As their speech develops, these processes should disappear from their speech, and most should go away by age five. Different processes have different typical elimination ages, or the age at which most children stop using the phonological process. Continuing to use phonological processes after the typical elimination age may indicate a phonological disorder. Phonological disorders require a different treatment approach than articulation disorders.

Understanding how phonological processes work can help you to better understand your child’s speech as they are learning to talk. Understanding how they work can also prepare you for changes you may hear as your child’s speech develops. One of the most common phonological processes is called fronting, which is when a sound is produced further forward in the mouth than it should be. With fronting, you will hear /g/ pronounced as /d/, /k/ pronounced as /t/, and sh pronounced as /s/. So, your toddler may ask for their “tup” instead of their “cup,” and tell you to “loot” at the “sip” out on the lake! Fronting is typically eliminated by age three and a half.

Another common phonological process is called stopping, which is when a fricative sound (think: a sound that you can hold out, like ssss…) is produced as a stop sound (sounds you cannot hold out, like /t/). If your child is using stopping in their speech, you might hear them ask for their “toap” (soap), or say they want to be a “bet” (vet) when they grow up. There can be more variation in the substitutions your child uses when stopping, so it can be tricky to decode the words he or she is trying to say. Fricative sounds that can be impacted by stopping are /s/, /z/, /f/, /v/, sh, /h/, th, and zh as in “measure.” Stopping is typically eliminated for /f/ and /s/ by age three, /v/ and /z/ by age three and a half, sh by age four and a half, and th by age five.

Final consonant deletion is another common phonological process. Final consonant deletion occurs when a child eliminates the last sound in a word ending in a consonant or consonant cluster, like “dih” for “dig,” and “juh” for “jump.” Final consonant deletion is typically eliminated by age three years and three months.

Cluster reduction is a common phonological process as well. Cluster reduction occurs when a child omits one or both of the consonant sounds in a cluster, like “sop” or “dop” for “stop,” or “lap” for “clap.” It can also occur in the middle or end of a word, like “net” for “nest.” Kids may eliminate the first or second sound in the cluster; either way, it is cluster reduction. Cluster reduction is typically eliminated by age four in words without /s/ in the cluster, and by age five for words with /s/ in the cluster.

In this post, we have only scratched the surface when it comes to demystifying all of the phonological processes. There are many more to learn about, including backing, initial consonant deletion, deaffrication, depalatalization, vowelization, gliding, affrication, alveolarization, labialization, denasalization, assimilation, coalescence, reduplication, final consonant devoicing, prevocalic voicing, weak syllable deletion, and epenthesis.

As you can imagine, if your child uses more than one phonological process at a time, it can be quite challenging to understand what they are trying to say. It’s important to continue to encourage your child to speak, even when they are unintelligible. Knowing about phonological processes might help you decode the patterns they are using, and in turn help you in assisting your child’s speech development. 

I hope you enjoyed this "funtastic" resource!

-Marissa Lozser, M.S., CCC-SLP