Final answer:
Phonological processes are patterns of sound errors normally used by children learning to talk. They include substitution, assimilation, omission, addition, and distortion, and they typically diminish as a child matures in speech development.
Step-by-step explanation:
A phonological process is a pattern of sound errors that some children use to simplify speech as they are learning to talk. These processes are part of normal language development, but if they persist beyond a certain age, they may be considered a phonological disorder. There are several types of phonological processes that describe different patterns of errors.
- Substitution: One class of sounds is substituted for another class of sounds. For example, replacing all sounds made in the back of the mouth like 'k' and 'g' with sounds made in the front of the mouth like 't' and 'd' (saying 'tup' for 'cup').
- Assimilation: A sound in a word changes to become more like another sound in the same word. For instance, 'doggy' becoming 'goggy'.
- Omission: A phoneme is left out from a word. This is common with final consonants, so 'hat' might be pronounced as 'ha'.
- Addition: An extra phoneme is inserted into a word, such as 'balue' for 'blue'.
- Distortion: Sounds are changed/altered, which can include lisping or slushy speech where 's' and 'z' are affected.