Phonological Process Milestones
Whether you are a parent of a child in speech therapy, or a Speech Language Pathologist looking for resources, these milestones can be helpful for assessing a child’s current level of phonology, and tracking their progress in Speech Therapy over time.
Phonological Processes expected in typical development:
Reduplication (2-3 years)
Final Consonant Deletion (up to 3 years)
Prevocalic Voicing (up to 3 years)
Fronting (up to 3.5 years)
Epenthesis (up to 3.5 years)
Assimilation (up to 3.5 years)
Stopping (3-5 years)
Stridency Deletion (3.5 - 4 years)
Devoicing (up to 4 years)
Gliding (up to 4 years)
Cluster Reduction (up to 4 years)
Weak Syllable Deletion (up to 4 years)
Vowelization (up to 5-7 years)
Phonological Processes not part of typical development, indicative of a phonological disorder:
References:
Bleile, Ken M. (1995). Manual of Articulation and Phonological Disorders. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
Bowen, Caroline, (2011). Elimination of Phonological Processes in Typical Development.
Children’s Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review. (2018). ASHAWire. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100
Hedge, M.N. (2001). Pocket Guide to Assessment in Speech-Language Pathology (2nd Edition). San Diego, CA:
Linguisystems, (2008). Phonological Pattern Suppression by Age. http://www.linguisystems.com
McLeod, S. & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100. Available from: https://ajslp.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2701897
Pena-Brooks, Adriana, & Hedge, M.N., (2007). Assessment and treatment of articulation and phonological disorders in children (2nd Edition)
Sander, E. K. (1972). When are Speech Sounds Learned? Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 37(1), 55–63. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshd.3701.55