Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to describe changes in whole-word productions in the speech of children as they aged from 24 to 36 months. Spontaneous language samples were obtained from 12 participants during parent–child interactions every 3 months, beginning with each participant's second birthday. Fifty different words from each sample were analysed to determine changes in a variety of whole-word measures including phonological mean length of utterance (PMLU) for target words and words produced, proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP), and proportion of words produced correctly (PWC). Significant changes in whole-word measures were evidenced by the participants over the course of the investigation, and those scores did not show stabilization by the age of 36 months.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the statistical assistance provided by Paul Hoffman, PhD, Shevaun Stocker, PhD, and Nathan Wetzel, PhD.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.