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This study is a follow-up of previous research on the acquisition of Arabic consonants in normally developing children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. The purpose of this study was to provide normative data on the acquisition of late consonants that had not been acquired by the age of 6;4 (years;months). Speech samples from 60 Arabic-speaking children between ages 6;6 and 8;4, in Amman, Jordan, were analyzed to determine the age at which 10 late consonants had been acquired and to determine the error patterns and sound changes used. Five of these consonants had still not been acquired in their standard form (Educated Spoken Arabic) by even the oldest children. However, 8 of the late consonants were produced in their acceptable colloquial forms by age 7;4 and all 10 by age 8;4. The late acquisition of these consonants was discussed from the point of view of functional load and markedness. Implications for diagnosis of articulation disorders and reading problems were considered.
KEY WORDS: phonological acquisition, Arabic phonology, functional load and markedness, normal phonology, emphatic consonants
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Recent interest in the relationships between residual disorders of phonology and problems with other language skills-expressive language, word-finding difficulty, reading disorders-raises some old questions about how and when the normally developing child finishes the process of phoneme learning (Bishop & Adams, 1990; Hodson, 1994; Ruscello, St. Louis, & Mason, 1991; Snowling, Goulandris, & Stackhouse, 1994). It appears that unresolved phonological disorders may have detrimental effects on children's progress in many areas (Gibbon, Stewart, Hardcastle, & Crimpin, 1999). The importance of identifying the "normal" progression of phoneme learning and distinguishing it from disordered or delayed phonological development cannot be overemphasized. For example, Lewis and Freebairn (1992) reported a follow-up study of adults with histories of preschool phonological disorders who were found to perform worse than normal controls on phonology, reading, and spelling, even as adults. This effect was even greater in cases in which there was an accompanying language disorder.
It is expected that the importance of identifying phonological disorders would be as great in one language as in another, but that identification might be enhanced or hindered somewhat by the characteristics of the specific language and rules for...