1997/01/01 by Sharynne McLeod, J. van Doorn, Vicki A. Reed · 2 citations
Psychology · Computer Science · #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Language Development and Disorders #Speech Recognition and Synthesis
paper · doi:10.1080/02699209708985185
openalex publication_date 1997/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Children with phonological impairment frequently have difficulty producing consonant clusters. Speech pathologists often use phonological processes to describe children's productions of consonant clusters, a commonly used description being cluster reduction. However, this description does not adequately address children's differing realizations of consonant clusters. The purpose of this paper is to develop and refine methods for the characterization of realizations of consonant clusters. The work of Greenlee (1974) and Chin and Dinnsen (1992) has been extended by examining the effect of syllable position, number of elements and constituents on children's realizations of consonant clusters. Specifically, word-initial fricative clusters, stop clusters, three element fricative + stop clusters, and word-final nasal clusters and fricative + stop clusters were examined. The results for 40 phonologically impaired children between the ages of 3;6 and 5;0 years are compared with those of Chin and Dinnsen (1992). The relationships found between child and adult representations of clusters suggest the importance of considering syllable position, number of elements and the constituents of consonant clusters when analysing phonologically impaired children's speech sounds.