Phonetic-Phonological Adjustments in Children with Typical Speech between 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 Years Old

Abstract

This article presents the main results of a study investigating the phonetic-phonemic adjustments (AFF, in Spanish) produced by children with typical language development, between 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 years old, from upper-middle social class families, living in Concepción, Chile. Data was collected by the means of a tale told by the children. The utterances were then analyzed using the Phonetic-Phonemic Adjustments Chart (CLAFF, in Spanish). The majority of adjustments were related to manner of articulation and manner and place of articulation with remoteness. Regarding the AFF associated to syllabic structure, syncopation was observed. No statistically significant effect of age-group on AFF was found. Since a main effect of age group was expected (given that smaller children ought to present more AFF than older children), an index relating the number of adjustments to the number of words within speaker was calculated. The results from this index, called Adjustment by Word Index (IAP, in Spanish), showed a main effect of age-group on IAP.