Phonological Development of Monolingual Haitian Creole–Speaking Preschool Children

Abstract

This study provides preliminary data on the phonological development of Haitian Creole–Speaking children. The purpose of this study is to determine phonological acquisition in the speech of normally developing monolingual Haitian Creole–Speaking preschoolers, ages 2 to 4. Speech samples were collected cross-sectionally from 12 Haitian children divided into three age groups. Participants’ utterances were recorded from spontaneous and/or imitative productions of target words. Data were analyzed through a relational analysis to determine phonemic inventories occurring in each age group’s speech. A gradual increase in speech sound inventories was observed from 2 to 4 years of age. Results indicate that phonological development in Haitian Creole–Speaking children was influenced by both language-universal patterns and language-specific patterns. In conclusion, data obtained on the phonological development of monolingual Haitian Creole preschoolers can provide insight to speech language pathologists during the clinical assessment and intervention process of this population.