One way children improve their pronunciation of monosyllabic words is via
clarification requests, specifically, the adult saying an incorrect production
that differs from the child's incorrect production (Weiner and Ostrowski, 1979).
The aim of this study was to investigate children's responses to clarification
requests when producing polysyllabic words (three or more syllables). Six
typically developing children, aged 4;1 to 4;9 years, produced polysyllabic
words during both a single word task and in conversational speech. When
participants produced polysyllabic words incorrectly, a predetermined
clarification request was used. Following this request, participants improved in
their production of polysyllabic words, suggesting that clarification requests
may have therapeutic applications.