The language to which children are exposed has been shown to have a direct effect on their early phonological development. Despite a growing body of data from cross-linguistic studies and studies on phonological development in various language environments, English still often serves as a benchmark for comparative studies. This article reviews general trends in phonological development and compares them with the latest studies on children acquiring Finnish. The main goal is to explore the course and timing of the development in children acquiring Finnish by bringing together recent research from phonemic inventories and phonotactics, including word length acquisition. Key developmental steps of phonological development are identified and directions for future research are recommended.
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