title: Functions of consonant assimilation and reduplication in early word productions of mentally retarded children.
abstract: Spontaneous speech samples were elicited from eight mentally retarded children. Examples of consonant assimilation and reduplication found in their speech samples were separately analyzed to examine how these phonological processes function in the phonologies of retarded children. Results showed wide individual variability in subjects' use of consonant assimilation. Reduplication functioned to provide a method by which the subjects whose word productions were primarily monosyllabic could produce multisyllabic targets and/or to provide a method by which the subjects could produce multisyllabic words that had one syllable containing target consonants of consonant clusters absent from their phonetic repertoires.
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D014831:Voice