Typical and atypical phonological acquisition of the CCV syllabic pattern: acoustic and articulatory data

Abstract

To characterize the production of syllabic patterns of the CCV and CV type in children with typical and atypical phonological development. The hypotheses were: H1 - the CV and CCV production of the typical children would present different ultrasonographic and acoustic measurements; H2 - the ultrasonographic and acoustic measurements could differentiate the clinical condition of the children; H3 – the children with atypical production could present differences in the ultrasonographic and acoustic measurements between CCV and CV (CCV judged aurally as CV). Ten children recorded words with CCV and CV syllables, and then, it was made octave analysis, acoustic and ultrasonographic analysis (ratios between tip and lamina of the tongue (TT/ LT), tip and dorsum of the tongue (TT/DT) and the lamina and dorsum of the tongue (LT/DT)), being analyzed by ANOVA of repeated measures. The H1 was corroborated by the ratios among TT/ LT, TT/ DT and LT/DT, indicating that typical children produce the CCV syllable different than CV. H2 and H3 were partially confirmed by the ratio between TT/DT and LT/DT and between TT/DT and LT/DT, respectively. The results suggest that the children with typical development seem to be in the direction of the target production, since in CCV, there is a higher TT elevation and duration when compared to the CV syllable. For atypical children, the ratios between TT/DT show that there is a tip of the tongue elevation of 18.23% in the CCV syllables, while in the CV syllable it was 13.58%, suggesting the presence of TT elevation to produce the tap with reduced magnitude and nonoverlapping of CCV gestures, as well as undifferentiated gestures.