CLINICAL PHONOLOGY

AND

MOTOR SPEECH DISORDERS

APPLICATION OF PHONOLOGICAL THEORIES IN ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

OF PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS

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Introduction:

Several theories of phonological acquisition have been devised over the years. This

section highlights some of them and provides background knowledge about phonology. As

specified by Stoel-Gammon (1991), a theory of phonological development must account for the

following seven requirements to be considered adequate:

 Account for the body of factual information gathered about phonological acquisition. To

meet this requirement, the theory must account for general patterns as well as individual

differences observed in order of acquisition of speech sounds, use of phonological

strategies, occurrence of phonological processes.

 Account for changes over time, including those that result in loss of a phonemic contrast

and/or a decrease in phonetic accuracy and those that establish new phonemic contrast

and/or increase phonetic inaccuracy

 Explain the role of input and account for the relationship between pre-linguistic and

linguistic development.

 Account for phonetic as well as phonological learning and be able to explain the

mismatches that often occur between the two.

 Be consistent with one’s understanding of speech perception and account for the

relationship between perception and production in phonological acquisition

 Be compatible with other theories of cognitive and general linguistic development and

general learning theories.

 Make testable predictions regarding patterns of acquisition, error types, and possible

individual differences.

No current theory is completely adequate to explain phonological development, although each

theory does account for some required aspects. Generally, there are 6 major phonological

theories with variations on the theme in each of the types of theories. Keeping other possibilities

in mind, phonological theories can be categorized as:

 Behaviourist theory

 Structuralist theory

 Generative phonology theory

 Natural phonology theory

 Nonlinear phonology theory

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  Optimality theory

BEHAVIORIST THEORY:

Behaviorist theory (Mowre, 1952; Olmstead, 1966,1971) emphasize the role of

reinforcement in speech acquisition. Behaviourist theory necessitates the occurrence of imitating,

practicing, experiencing, conditioning and reinforcing behaviour. Inherent in this theory is the

need to communicate with the child attending to and identifying with the care taker. The process

starts with the vocalization of the caretaker being associated with the primary reinforcers

including food, comfortable environmental conditions, and other things provided to meet the

child’s basic needs. Then, the child’s own vocalizations become positively reinforcing to the child

because of their similarity to the caretaker’s vocalization. The sounds produced more like the

care takers are selectively reinforced extrinsically by others and internally by the child.

Applications:

Olmsted (1966) takes Mower’s learning theory as a starting point for a series of deductive

‘postulates’ which predict the course of phonological acquisition, defined by the accurate

pronunciation of phonemes, as a function of,

 Frequency of occurrence in input speech

 Ease of perception

The data obtained by behaviorist on phonological development served a base for

comparison and evaluation of abnormal patterns. (With the limitation that it’s obtained from

non-experimental methods i.e. based on observation).

This model provides a basis for assessing babbling and its transition into meaningful speech.

Emphasis on universality enables therapist to compare normal and disordered speech.

Behavioral therapy or training has its foundation in this theory. This model directs the therapist

towards discovering factors which may have adverse effect on normal development. It

emphasizes encouragement and reinforcement of babbling and the need for adequate

environmental stimulation.

Some of the strategies based on this theory which are extensively used in speech

language therapy are:

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  Positive reinforcement

 Shaping

 Punishment

 Imitation

 Modeling

STRUCTURALIST THEORY:

The structuralist theorists (Jakobson, 1968,1971; Jakobson & Hale, 1968) have postulated

that universals exists in the acquisition of language in which the phonological development and

systems of all languages are similar. They also contend that an invariant and innate order of

stages of phonemic development in the learning of all languages exists, however the rate of

progression through the stages of development is individual and variable. These universals

apply to children and various languages as well as to aphasia in which the breakdown of sounds

system proceeds in stages going in the opposite order to phonological development in children.

Parenthetically, the latter contention regarding aphasia subsequently has not been borne out by

empirical resear

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