The speech of phonologically disordered children acquiring Italian

Abstract

The phonological errors of nine Italian-speaking, phonologically disordered children were compared with those committed by nine normally developing Italian children matched for size of consonant inventory. The two groups were highly similar in the phonological processes reflected in their speech, although several of the phonologically disordered children applied common phonological processes in unusual ways. Children in both subject groups produced errors (e.g., /l/ for /r/, /n/ for /l/) that reflected a sensitivity to the phonetic characteristics of the phonemes of Italian as well as to the types of sounds in the language that might serve as reasonable substitutes. These findings suggest that phonologically disordered children's errors represent more than failed attempts at articulatory targets, as the productions that result remain faithful to the structure of the ambient phonology.

Key Words:

• Phonologically disordered children
• Italian phonemes
• substitute sounds