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

• Main Author: Másdóttir, Þóra
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2020
• Subjects: Phonological development; speech sound acquisition; speech sound testing; cross-sectional study; hljóðþróun; málhljóðatileinkun; framburður barna; farmburðarprófun; þversniðsrannsókn; Reykjavík; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/netla/article/view/3056

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 ...