Vowel errors in Spanish-speaking children with phonological disorders: a retrospective, comparative study

Abstract

Investigations of vowel errors in children with phonological disorders have been primarily limited to English-speaking children. In the present study, the vowel productions of 23 three- and four-year-old Puerto Rican, Spanish-speaking children with phonological disorders are described and compared to those of 15 General American English-speaking children reported by Pollock and Keiser (1990). Results indicate that children with phonological disorders acquiring Spanish, which has a relatively simpler vowel system, produced far fewer vowel errors (M = 1%) than children with phonological disorders of similar severity acquiring American English (M = 11%). Those vowels most frequently in error for English-speaking children (/ae/, /U/, /I/ and /epsilon/) do not occur in Spanish. However, English-speaking children also showed higher error rates (M = 7%) on those vowels common to both languages. When errors did occur for Spanish-speaking children, the mid vowels /o/ and /e/ were most often in error. Both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking children showed frequent use of a Lowering error pattern. Vowel harmony patterns could also account for a number of errors produced by Spanish-speaking children, but were rarely reported for English-speaking children.