The Role of Phonological Context in Speech Development: Implications for Therapy of Developmental Phonological Deviations

It has been observed that some classes of phonemes, eg, liquids, & syllabic structures, eg, a coda or a complex onset, are major sources of difficulties in child language acquisition. A study of the phonological contexts facilitating the generation of such sounds & syllables is relevant to the diagnosis & therapy of child speech deviations & disorders. Material from a databank of Brazilian children's linguistic development compiled at the Catholic U of Rio Grande do Sul is analyzed to determine, by using normal speech development patterns, the best approaches to treating deviant phonological development. The study focuses on the correct realization of Brazilian Portuguese nasals, fricatives, & lateral & nonlateral liquids in middle & final codas. The effect of tonality (stressed, pretonic, & post-tonic syllable), preceding vowel (low vs middle), word length (measured by the number syllables), & following consonant was investigated in a computer-assisted statistical analysis. It is found that syllable tonality, the type of preceding vowel, & the number of syllables in a word may positively influence the correct production of the target sounds, as these were clearly favored by stressed syllables, lower vowels, & shorter words. A relationship between the production of target segments & the distinctive features of the following consonant was also attested, although the statistical significance of this correlation was not ascertained. Implications for speech therapy of children with phonation problems are briefly discussed. Z. Dubiel