What is Stridency Deletion?

Stridency Deletion (StD) is a phonological process seen in typical development up to the age of 3 1/2 - 4 years. In StD, a strident sound (any fricative or affricate sound) is either deleted or replaced with a non-strident sound (“h” or plosives).

Examples:

  • shoe = -oo

  • stand = tand

  • bus = buh

  • soon = hoon or oon

  • push = put or puh

If a strident is replaced by a plosive (stop sound), it will present the same as Stopping.

 

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