The research program is designed to examine the development of phonological categories by children with phonological disorders.
The aim i s to experimentally test the course, types, principles, and limits of restructuring in phonological categories by these children. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted, integrating theories and methodologies of cognitive psychology, linguistics, and speech-language pathology in the study of 72 children. Four main projects are planned, each involving phonological and acoustic descriptions of children's sound systems, assessment of children's judgments of phonological categories, and clinical treatment. Project I examines the course of change in categories by evaluating the hypothesis that certain phonological categories are prerequisite for others in development. Project II differentiates types of change in categories by testing the hypothesis that some phonological changes are easier to induce clinically than others. Project III takes up the issue of principles governing categories by examining the hypothesis that the degree and extent of clinically-induced change is influenced by a child's predetermined assumptions about the sound system. Project IV tests the limits of category restructuring by identifying children at risk for no phonological change. The outcome of this research program will contribute to an understanding of phonological categories, development, and change. There is strong applied significance in that the goal of clinical treatment is to induce such change. Theoretically, an integrated model of the development of categories as instantiated in the domain of phonology will result. Domain-specific properties of categorization, particular to phonology, will be distinguished from those attributable more generally to the cognitive capabilities of learners.
