The Acquisition of Fricatives and Affricates: Evidence From a Disordered Phonological System

Abstract

This study describes the acquisition of the entire fricative and affricate sound classes by a child with a disordered phonological system and other co-occurring conditions. Pretreatment, the participant, age 5;3 (years; months), produced homorganic stops for all fricatives and affricates. Two fricatives, /v/ and /z/, were taught one at a time in the word-initial position, first by imitation and then in minimally paired words to test hypotheses regarding the generalization of the features [continuant] and [strident] across word positions and sound classes. The 26-week treatment followed cognitive-linguistic principles and resulted in reorganization of the sound system to include the fricative and affricate sound classes.