West Chester University Digital Commons @ West Chester University Communication Sciences & Disorders College of Health Sciences 7-2001 An Initial Investigation of Phonological Patterns in Typically Developing 4-Year-Old Spanish- English Bilingual Children Brian Goldstein Temple University Patricia A. Swasey Washington West Chester University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/comdis_facpub Part of the Speech and Hearing Science Commons Recommended Citation Goldstein, B., & Swasey Washington, P. A. (2001). An Initial Investigation of Phonological Patterns in Typically Developing 4-Year- Old Spanish- English Bilingual Children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 153-164. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/comdis_facpub/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Health Sciences at Digital Commons @ West Chester University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Sciences & Disorders by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ West Chester University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LSHSS Clinical Forum An Initial Investigation of Phonological Patterns in Typically Developing 4-Year-Old Spanish- English Bilingual Children Brian Goldstein Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Patricia Swasey Washington Camden City School District, Camden, NJ n the United States, there are many individuals speakers in the United States by that time, at least 5 who speak languages other than and in addition million of whom will be under the age of 5 years (U.S. I to English. Spanish, with more than 22 million Bureau of the Census, 1995). speakers (approximately 9% of the population), is the Despite the increasing number of individuals in the language other than English that is most likely to be United States speaking languages other than English, almost spoken by individuals in the United States (Grimes, 1996). all data that exist on phonological development in preschool If, as predicted, the number of Hispanic/Latino individuals children come from monolingual speakers, in particular, in the United States rises to more than 51 million by the monolingual English speakers (e.g., see Bernthal & Bankson, year 2025 (an increase to 15.7% of the U.S. population), 1998 for a review). Although some data also have been then there will be approximately 26 million Spanish collected from monolingual speakers of languages other than ABSTRACT: Purpose: This collaborative study investigated percentage of occurrence for phonological processes. phonological patterns in 12 typically developing 4-year-old However, the children exhibited different patterns of produc- bilingual (Spanish-English) children. tion across the two languages and showed different patterns Method: A single-word phonological assessment with compared to monolingual children of either language. separate versions for English and Spanish was administered Clinical Implications: The preliminary findings suggest that to each child. Analyses consisted of a phonetic inventory; the phonological system of bilingual (Spanish-English) percentage of consonants correct; percentage of consonants children is both similar to and different from that of correct for voicing, place of articulation, and manner of monolingual speakers of either language. Compared to articulation; and the percentage of occurrence for phono- monolingual speakers, bilingual children should be expected logical processes. to exhibit different types of errors and different substitution Results: The results indicated that there were no significant patterns for target sounds. differences between the two languages on percentage of consonants correct; percentage of consonants correct for KEY WORDS: children, bilingual, Spanish phonology, voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation; or phonological patterns LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS • Vol. 32 • 153–164 • July 2001 © American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 153 0161–1461/01/3203–0153 Downloaded From: http://lshss.pubs.asha.org/ by a West Chester University User on 12/04/2014 Terms of Use: http://pubs.asha.org/ss/Rights_and_Permissions.aspx English (see Yavas, 1998 for a review), little information and evidenced phonological patterns that were not exhibited exists concerning phonological development in bilingual by either monolingual Spanish speakers (e.g., final conso- speakers. It may be the case that phonological acquisition nant devoicing) or monolingual English speakers (e.g., in bilingual speakers is different from that for monolingual initial consonant deletion). speakers. Given that the majority of bilingual speakers in Gildersleeve-Neumann and Davis (1998) examined the the United States will be speakers of Spanish and English, phonological skills of 27 typically developing 3-year-old it is imperative to begin exploring the phonological systems bilingual (English-Spanish) children and compared them to of bilingual (Spanish-English) speakers. the phonological skills of 14 typically developing 3-year- old monolingual English speakers and 6 typically develop- ing 3-year-old monolingual Spanish speakers. All of the bilingual children were tested only in English. The bilin- PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN gual children demonstrated more phonological processes MONOLINGUAL (SPANISH) AND and exhibited, on average, a higher percentage of occur- BILINGUAL PRESCHOOLERS rence on 6 of the 10 phonological processes analyzed (cluster reduction, backing, final consonant deletion, final A number of studies have examined phonological devoicing, initial voicing, and stopping) than either the acquisition in monolingual, Spanish-speaking children (see monolingual English or the monolingual Spanish speakers. Goldstein, 1995 for a detailed review). The results from Gildersleeve-Neumann and Davis concluded that bilingual these studies indicated that, by approximately 4 years of speakers demonstrated different developmental patterns than age, typically developing children mastered the majority of their monolingual peers and exhibited more errors initially sounds in the inventory but still exhibited difficulties with than monolingual speakers. However, these differences the phonemes /g/, /f/, /s/, /≠/, /r/ (trill), and /|/ (flap) decreased over time. (Acevedo, 1993; De la Fuente, 1985; Eblen, 1982; The data collected by Gildersleeve et al. (1996) and Gonzalez, 1981; Jimenez, 1987; Mason, Smith, & Hinshaw, Gildersleeve-Neumann and Davis (1998) need to be supple- 1976). They acquired (a) stops before nasals, (b) nasals mented for a variety of reasons. First, the children in those before fricatives, and (c) fricatives and affricates before studies were all 3-year-olds. Given that phonological liquids (Macken, 1975, 1978; Macken & Barton, 1980). development is not complete at that point, there is a need to They also exhibited moderate amounts (percentages of examine the phonological systems of 4-year-old children as occurrence greater than 10%) of cluster reduction, final well. Second, the bilingual children’s phonological skills consonant deletion, unstressed syllable deletion, tap/trill /r/ were assessed only in English. Thus, there is a need to deviation, and fronting (Anderson & Smith, 1987; Cabello, describe both the English and the Spanish phonological skills 1986; Goldstein & Iglesias, 1996; Gonzalez, 1981). These of bilingual children. Finally, both studies have yet to be general findings from monolingual Spanish speakers are published. In fact, many of the studies completed on Spanish comparable to those from monolingual English speakers speakers in general and bilingual (Spanish-English) speakers (Bernthal & Bankson, 1998). Whether these data reflect the in particular are unpublished and not readily available. skills of bilingual (Spanish-English) children is unknown. This collaborative project was intended to fulfill two There is some evidence that the phonological system of main purposes. First, we wanted to demonstrate how a bilingual speakers develops somewhat differently from that research scientist (first author) can collaborate with a clinical of monolingual speakers of either language. Gildersleeve, scientist (second author, a certified and bilingual speech- Davis, and Stubbe (1996) examined the phonological skills language pathologist) to complete original research. Second, of 29 typically developing 3-year-old bilingual (English- we wanted to add information to the growing database on Spanish) children and compared them to the phonological Spanish phonological development by collecting initial data skills of 14 typically developing 3-year-old monolingual in typically developing bilingual (Spanish-English) children English speakers and 6 typically developing 3-year-old and comparing those data to data on typically developing monolingual Spanish speakers. All of the bilingual children monolingual children in both languages. were tested only in English. Gildersleeve et al. found that the bilingual children showed an overall lower intelligibility rating, made more consonant and vowel errors overall, distorted more sounds, and produced more uncommon error METHOD patterns than either monolingual English or monolingual Spanish speakers. Significant differences between younger To undertake this study, the two authors met to deter- bilingual children (ages 3:0–3:6 [years:months]) and mine the method for the study and subsequently discussed younger monolingual children were found for