Speech sound development of Icelandic speaking children from two – eight years of age

Abstract

The Icelandic phonological system is in many respects different from the system of other Germanic languages, making it unreasonable to use other languages as a point of reference when we study the speech sound development of Icelandic-speaking children. It is important to obtain standardized and language-specific information about phonological development in order to reliably compare children with phonological disorders to typically developing children. In addition, information about speech sound development enables further research in relation to phonetic and phonological awareness and early reading skills. Previous research about the speech sound development of Icelandic-speaking children is dated (e.g., Indriði Gíslason, Sigurður Konráðsson & Benedikt Jóhannesson, 1986) or considers a restricted age span (Þóra Másdóttir, 2008). The purpose of this project was to study speech sound development in a broad age range of children; that is, to explore the acquisition of single sounds and consonant clusters. The participants were 437 children aged between two years and six months and seven years and eleven months. The children came from across Iceland, although the majority were from Reykjavík and surrounding areas. Data was collected by administering Málhljóðapróf ÞM [ÞM’s speech sound test], which tests all Icelandic single consonants and selected (frequent) consonant clusters in initial, medial and final word positions. The main results indicated that there is a gradual increase in the number of sounds produced correctly, with a ceiling effect evident when children approach their fourth birthday; that is, by three years six months over 90% of children have mastered nearly all single sounds in Icelandic. Consonant clusters develop later, with children not reaching the same level of mastery until their eighth year. A significant difference was found in speech sound acquisition (singletons and clusters) between “distant” age groups; that is, the difference was significant between the groups of 2;6-2;11 and 4;0-4;6 etc. The early acquired singletons are m, n, b, d, l, h, and f, however, r, s, þ, /?/ (as in auga), and voiceless /n/ (as in hneppa) are the last acquired speech sounds. In relation to consonant clusters, nasal clusters (as in svampur and flinkur) are the first to be acquired along with preaspirated stops (as in smakka). However, the /r/ and /s/ clusters (as in trappa and skófla) are the last to be acquired. Word position is important in terms of both singleton and cluster acquisition, especially in the younger age groups. In other words, children acquire speech sounds earlier in word medial and final positions than they do in word initial position. When consonants are categorized according to manner of articulation, children first acquire nasals (with the exception of voiceless /n/ in word initial position), followed by stops and laterals concurrently. Children acquire fricatives and rhotics later. This study confirms that speech sound development of Icelandic-speaking children follows a similar acquisition pattern to other languages, especially in relation to manner of articulation. The study results are also similar to prior studies of Icelandic in terms of rate of acquisition of individual singletons and clusters. However, it must be noted that voiceless /n/ (as in hneppa) appears to be acquired at a later age now than in the study of Indriði Gíslason et al. (1986). The current data set offers possibilities of examining the relationship between speech sound production (especially in multi-syllabic words) and letter-sound knowledge or other reading-related research. Further research is necessary to map the phonological system of children with phonological disorders.