There is a noted advantage of dense neighborhoods in language acquisition, but the learning mechanism that drives the effect is not well understood. Two hypotheses--long-term auditory word priming and phonological working memory--have been advanced in the literature as viable accounts. These were evaluated in two treatment studies enrolling twelve…

The effect of word-level variables on expressive phonology has not been widely studied, although the properties of words likely bear on the emergence of sound structure (Stoel-Gammon, 2011). Eight preschoolers, diagnosed with phonological delay, were assigned to treatment to experimentally induce gains in expressive phonology. Erred sounds were…

This article documents the typological occurrence and interactions of two seemingly independent error patterns, namely Velar Fronting and Labial Harmony, in a cross-sectional investigation of the sound systems of 235 children with phonological delays (ages 3;0 to 7;9). The results revealed that the occurrence of Labial Harmony depends on the…

Two experiments with 11 children (ages 3 to 7) exhibiting functional phonological delays evaluated the Sonority Sequencing Principle (a principle governing the permissible sequences of consonants within syllables) as applied to the acquisition of onset clusters and adjuncts. Findings are integrated in discussion of the representation of onset…

Two studies, one within subjects and the other across subjects, evaluated the efficacy of teaching sounds in developmental sequence to nine young children (ages three to five). Treatment of later-acquired phonemes led to systemwide changes in untreated sound classes, whereas treatment of early-acquired phonemes did not. Findings suggest…

This study evaluated whether variations in the structure of minimal versus maximal opposition treatments would result in empirical differences in phonological learning with three four-year-old boys who excluded at least six sounds from their phonetic and phonemic inventories. Results indicated that treatment of maximal oppositions led to greater…