Speech processing and production in two-year-old children acquiring isiXhosa: A tale of two children

Abstract

We investigated the speech processing and production of 2-year-old children acquiring isiXhosa in South Africa. Two children (2 years, 5 months; 2 years, 8 months) are presented as single cases. Speech input processing, stored phonological knowledge and speech output are described, based on data from auditory discrimination, naming, and repetition tasks. Both children were approximating adult levels of accuracy in their speech output, although naming was constrained by vocabulary. Performance across tasks was variable: One child showed a relative strength with repetition, and experienced most difficulties with auditory discrimination. The other performed equally well in naming and repetition, and obtained 100% for her auditory task. There is limited data regarding typical development of isiXhosa, and the focus has mainly been on speech production. This exploratory study describes typical development of isiXhosa using a variety of tasks understood within a psycholinguistic framework. We describe some ways in which speech and language therapists can devise and carry out assessment with children in situations where few formal assessments exist, and also detail the challenges of such work.

Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa–English-speaking child

“…Mowrer and Burger ( 1991 ) also suggested that isiXhosa-speaking children acquire most consonants earlier than their English-speaking peers. This was similarly noted in two case studies conducted by Pascoe et al ( 2016 ), who found that the two children in their study had acquired all of their vowels and many of their consonants by the ages of 2 years and 5 months, and 2 years and 8 months. Clicks, one of the most well-studied aspects of isiXhosa phonology, are acquired between the ages of 1 and 3 years (Gxilishe, 2004 ; Tuomi et al, 2001 ).…”

“…Considering isiXhosa, the phonological development in isiXhosa-speaking children has been investigated (Gxilishe, 2004 ; Lewis & Roux, 1996 ; Maphalala, Pascoe & Smouse, 2014 ; Mowrer & Burger, 1991 ; Pascoe et al, 2016 ; Tuomi, Gxilishe & Matomela, 2001 ). Maphalala et al ( 2014 ) conducted a cross-sectional study, investigating the speech production of 24 isiXhosa-speaking children between the ages of 3 and 6 years.…”

The Effect of Blocked Versus Serial Practice in the Treatment of Developmental Motor-Based Articulation Disorder

“…Furthermore, available data in isiXhosa (which belongs to the same Bantu language family as Sepedi) suggests that most consonants in isiXhosa are acquired by the age of 3 years, with exception of the aspirated plosives, affricates, fricatives, and clicks which develop a bit later (Maphalala, Pascoe, & Smouse, 2014). These available norms seem to correlate with reports of consonants generally being acquired earlier in Bantu languages than in English (Pascoe et al, 2016). Although there are no specific normative data available in Sepedi, data on the aforementioned Bantu language family, the phonological and phonetic systems of an early bilingual, as well as the similarity of the phoneme inventories in Sepedi and English to the speech sounds in error in the present study, lead to the diagnosis of SSD rather than a speech difference.…”

Mapeando os percursos possíveis na aquisição das líquidas /l, ɾ/ em ataques simples e complexos: dados de produção de fala

“…O teste contou com duas tarefas: repetição lexical e nomeação espontânea -ambas exigindo da criança uma produção ou 'reconstrução' lexical com base em estímulos visuais e/ou auditivos. Pascoe et al (2016) apontam que tarefas de nomeação e repetição diferenciam-se pela presença ou não de uma etapa de processamento auditivo prévia à produção, mas ambas exigem acesso à representação fonológica estocada no Léxico. Deste modo, embora diferentes, ambas as tarefas de nomeação e repetição de palavras apresentam acesso comparável à produção e às representações lexicais infantis -e por esse motivo, os dados de nomeação espontânea e repetição de palavras foram analisados em conjunto.…”