Chatter Matters
A Caregiver's Guide to Children's Speech
About Us/Our Website's Mission
We are seniors at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We are studying Linguistics, Speech and Hearing! We aim to help caregivers have a better idea of what their kiddos are saying and how to support them in their language-learning journey. Read on to learn more.
What are Phonological Processes?
Learning a language is a long process and children are bound to not sound adult-like sometimes, they're learning! That's where we come in! This website can be used as a guide for the most common phenomena observed in children's pronunciation to help you understand your child's speech. Phonological processes are the ways that children change the way they pronounce words so that they are easier to pronounce. This may look like leaving out sounds, changing sounds for others, or swapping sounds. We got you covered on the different common phonological processes, why they might happen, and how you can help your child succeed in their language learning journey!
Want to be Equipped with Speech Knowledge?
Positive Evidence is one way caregivers can reinforce their child's knowledge and guide them in their language acquisition journey! By learning to recognize the most common phenomena in children's pronunciation, you will be able to understand the knowledge they do have and what they may need more support in. Positive evidence, specifically recasting, focuses on repeating back the children's words in the most adult-like way possible to help model the most adult-like pronunciation! Instead of correcting by saying "That's not how you say it", instead model what you want to be said instead. Take the following interaction, for example:
Child: "I want the guck!"
Caregiver: "Oh you want the duck!"
There are many ways to help support your child in gaining more adult-like pronunciation skills, and positive evidence is just one example! Click on the audio files below for more examples of child pronunciation phenomena to learn more about your kiddos' speech.
Does this sound like your child?
Click on the corresponding button to learn more about what phonological process is taking place!