Acquisition of /s/-clusters in Dutch-speaking children with phonological disorders

Abstract

This study investigated the acquisition of word initial /s/ clusters of 3–5 year old Dutch children with phonological disorders. Within these clusters, /sl/ was produced correctly most often, whereas /sn/ and /sx/ were the more difficult clusters. In cluster reductions, /s/+obstruent and /sl/ clusters reduction patterns followed the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) by retaining the least sonorous segment; but this is not the case for the /sm/ cluster, where the more sonorous element is retained. The predictions of the factorial typology are supported. Reductions seem explainable through an interaction between sonority and the prosodic head of the cluster. Exceptions are /sn/ and /sx/, where no consistent reduction patterns are found. As expected, word production of children with phonological disorders is far less target-like than that of typically-developing children. However, the patterns of phonological simplification and reduction of the two groups are surprisingly similar. It can be concluded that language development of children with phonological disorders is delayed rather than deviant.

Keywords:

• s-clusters
• Dutch
• phonological disorders

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Anouk Vercoulen, speech therapist and master's student of Speech and Language Pathology (Radboud University Nijmegen) for recruiting and testing the children and Professor Toni Rietveld for supervising her thesis. A special ‘thank you’ also to the children with phonological disorders who participated in this study. Finally, I thank the members of the #sC onset group, and especially Mehmet Yavaş, for their thoughtful discussion of many issues discussed above.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1. In addition to their phonological problems, they often were weak performers in other language domains too, such as semantics and morpho-syntax. The children could also be referred to as children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).