Development of Phonological Error Patterns in Arabic-Speaking Children in Jordan

Abstract

This study aims to identify the phonological error patterns of normally developing children who speak colloquial Jordanian Arabic dialect and to provide normative data for the age of suppression for each phonological error pattern. One hundred fifty-four normally developing children (68 females and 86 males) ranging from 3 to 6.5 years were recruited from nurseries and kindergartens in the cities of Amman and Salt to participate in the present study. Data collection was performed in a quiet room (Ambient noise <30 dB A) using Amayreh’s articulation test. Two speech-language pathologists (SLPs) scored the responses of each participant independently. The phonological error pattern is considered present if it is produced in five different words by the child in single-word productions and present in 10% of the children in any age group. Some phonological error patterns were not evident in normally developing Jordanian Arabic–speaking children (e.g., cluster reduction, affrication, and deaffrication). Most phonological error patterns disappeared at the age of 5.5 to 6 years. Fronting was the only pattern that existed after the age of 6. Linguistic and dialectical features can vastly affect these patterns and their suppression. Therefore, obtaining normative data for different Arabic dialects is needed and has important clinical implications for diagnosing phonological disorders, treatment planning, and assigning intervention targets.