Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Amy Glaspey
Faculty Mentor’s Department
School of Speech, Language, Hearing and Occupational Sciences
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Consonant acquisition refers to the developmental process of learning to use individual consonants sounds in spoken communication. A consonant is “acquired” when a child can produce it accurately and independently. Each language has its own unique progression of consonants that are acquired by native speakers as they develop linguistically. In the ongoing process of comparing consonant acquisition across languages, many universal patterns have emerged. However, discrepancies exist between these universal patterns of consonant acquisition and the progression of consonant acquisition in individual languages. Speech-language assessments use the consonant acquisition of individual children as one of the benchmarks to identify those who diverge from typical linguistic development. It is therefore imperative that clinicians have an accurate picture of the typical progression of consonant acquisition of their client’s native language. The purpose of our study is to compare and contrast the acquisition of consonants in French to universal patterns of consonant acquisition to provide a clearer benchmark for speech-language clinicians working with francophone clients. Our method is a descriptive analysis comparing studies of French consonant acquisition to the universal patterns laid out in the article ‘Children’s Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review’ by Sharynne McLeod and Kathryn Crowe. The significance of our study is to highlight the similarities and differences between French and universal consonant acquisition. The clinical implications and potential sources of biases will be discussed.
Category
Social Sciences
Similarities and Differences between French and Universal Consonant Acquisition
Consonant acquisition refers to the developmental process of learning to use individual consonants sounds in spoken communication. A consonant is “acquired” when a child can produce it accurately and independently. Each language has its own unique progression of consonants that are acquired by native speakers as they develop linguistically. In the ongoing process of comparing consonant acquisition across languages, many universal patterns have emerged. However, discrepancies exist between these universal patterns of consonant acquisition and the progression of consonant acquisition in individual languages. Speech-language assessments use the consonant acquisition of individual children as one of the benchmarks to identify those who diverge from typical linguistic development. It is therefore imperative that clinicians have an accurate picture of the typical progression of consonant acquisition of their client’s native language. The purpose of our study is to compare and contrast the acquisition of consonants in French to universal patterns of consonant acquisition to provide a clearer benchmark for speech-language clinicians working with francophone clients. Our method is a descriptive analysis comparing studies of French consonant acquisition to the universal patterns laid out in the article ‘Children’s Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review’ by Sharynne McLeod and Kathryn Crowe. The significance of our study is to highlight the similarities and differences between French and universal consonant acquisition. The clinical implications and potential sources of biases will be discussed.