South African English Speech Development: Preliminary Data from Typically Developing Preschool Children in Cape Town

Abstract

English is one of eleven official languages in South Africa, but there is limited information on children's acquisition of English and other languages in this context. This paper describes speech development in 308 children aged 3;0-5;11 acquiring South African English in Cape Town. The study focused on English speech acquisition, although children were grouped by language background into monolingual, isiXhosa bilingual, Afrikaans bilingual and trilingual groups. The primary objective was to describe phonetic and phonological acquisition (percentage consonants and vowels correct (PCC and PVC); phonetic inventory and phonological processes) by children's age and language background. As a secondary objective we described the prevalence of speech disorders in the sample using Dodd's (2005) framework. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology was used to assess participants with modified scoring criteria appropriate for the context. Phonological processes and inventories were broadly comparable to normative data for English speech acquisition documented in the literature, and a progression was observed with increasing age. PCC and PVC were similar for children within age bands despite different language backgrounds. Bilingual children showed aspects of English phonological development linked to their L1, and some differences in phonological processes were observed. Approximately 9% of children (n = 28) had speech difficulties, with 75% of this group having a speech delay. The study highlights the importance of adapting speech assessments for use with populations that differ from the originally intended audience. This work contributes to knowledge of typical speech development in South Africa and in multilingual contexts more generally.

Speech sound development in typically developing 2–7‐year‐old Dutch‐speaking children: A normative cross‐sectional study

“…2003; Pascoe et al . 2018). This was expected since the phenomenon is explained by the phonetic difference between vowels and consonants, where the production of the latter sounds, and especially consonant clusters, requires more precise speech motor skills than does the production of vowels.…”

“…(2003), who reported that in English‐speaking children most phonological processes were resolved by 4;0 years and comparable with the findings in other languages (Clausen and Fox‐Boyer 2017; Pascoe et al . 2018). In our study, of all phonological processes, cluster reduction was present the longest, which, again, is in line with other studies in other languages (Aalto et al .…”

“…2003; Pascoe et al . 2018). Gliding occurs when the liquids /l/ and /r/ are replaced by the glides /j/ or /w/.…”

“…2017), Danish (Clausen and Fox‐Boyer 2017), South African English (Pascoe et al . 2018) and Italian (Tresoldi et al . 2018).…”

Long-term effects of childhood speech and language disorders: A scoping review

“…In the United States (US), it has been reported that 8% of children aged 3-17 years have voice, speech, language or swallowing disorders (Black, Vahratian & Hoffman 2015). In the United Kingdom (UK), 6% of children are reported to have speech and language delays (Law et al 2000), which is similar to the estimated 6% -9% of children in South Africa (Nwosu 2015;Pascoe, Mahura & Le Roux 2018). In Australia, the prevalence of communication impairments ranges from < 1% to 21% amongst Australian children, depending on the reference source, with prevalence highest amongst younger children (McCormack et al 2007).…”