CONSISTENCY OF CONSONANT PATTERNS BY WORD POSITION

Children with phonological disorders form a large part of many clinica l populations. A framework for characterization of disordered phonolog y based on changes in 'system' and 'structure' has previously been pro posed. One aspect of both systemic and structural description of disor dered speech is characterization of word-medial position. The goal of this study was to analyse the speech of 10 phonologically disordered c hildren to determine the descriptive importance of medial consonant pr oductions in characterizing their disorder. Results do not lend creden ce to the notion that word-medial position is characterized by initial and final position production patterns. Both significant and non-sign ificant results of statistical comparisons and descriptive analyses su pport this perspective. In the consonant phonetic inventory, there wer e clear and significant differences across word positions in consonant s in the inventory, with word-medial positions least complete. Analysi s of consonants correct revealed significant differences in the level of correct use of consonants for only word initial position related to all three other positions studied. Process analysis results revealed no position-specific patterns of process use across positions.