What is Gliding?

Gliding (Gl), also called Liquid Gliding or Liquid Simplification, is a phonological process typically present up until the age of 4 years.

Gliding involves the replacement of a pre-vocalic liquid - /r/ or /l/ in the initial position of a word or syllable - with a glide - “w” or “y” sound. Gliding can effect /r/ or /l/ in single consonants or within clusters.

Examples:

• drive = dwive

• late = wate or yate

• rake = wake or yake

• slide = swide

• taller = tah-wer or tah-yer