Two-year-old phonology: impact of input, motor and cognitive abilities on development.
Previous research has rarely compared the contributions of different underlying abilities to phonological acquisition. In this study, the auditory-visual speech perception, oro-motor and rule abstraction skills of 62 typically developing two-year olds were assessed and contrasted with the accuracy of their spoken phonology. Measures included auditory-visual speech perception, production of isolated and sequenced oro-motor movements, and verbal and non-verbal rule abstraction. Abilities in all three domains contributed to phonological acquisition. However, the use of atypical phonological rules was associated with lower levels of phonological accuracy and a linear regression indicated that this measure of rule abstraction had greater explanatory power than the measures of input processing and output skill.
Dodd
Barbara
B
Queensland University Centre for Clinical Research, Queensland, Australia. bdodd@somc.uq.edu.au
McIntosh
Beth
B
D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology