This study provides preliminary data on the phonological development of Haitian Creole–Speaking children. The purpose of this study is to determine phonological acquisition in the speech of normally developing monolingual Haitian Creole–Speaking preschoolers, ages 2 to 4. Speech samples were collected cross-sectionally from 12 Haitian children divided into three age groups. Participants’ utterances were recorded from spontaneous and/or imitative productions of target words. Data were analyzed through a relational analysis to determine phonemic inventories occurring in each age group’s speech. A gradual increase in speech sound inventories was observed from 2 to 4 years of age. Results indicate that phonological development in Haitian Creole–Speaking children was influenced by both language-universal patterns and language-specific patterns. In conclusion, data obtained on the phonological development of monolingual Haitian Creole preschoolers can provide insight to speech language pathologists during the clinical assessment and intervention process of this population.
AndersonR.SmithB. (1987). Phonological development of two-year-old monolingual Puerto Rican Spanish-learning children. Journal of Child Language, 14, 57–78.
BickertonD. (1999). How to acquire language without positive evidence: What acquisitionists can learn from Creoles. In DeGraffM. (Ed.), Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and development (pp. 49–74). Cambridge: MIT Press.
6.
CivanM. B.VilsaintF.Morisset-MétellusG. (1995). Haitians: Their history and culture. Washington, DC: Educa Vision.
7.
DeGraffM. (2001). Morphology in Creole genesis: Linguistics and ideology. In KenstowiczM. (Ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language (pp. 53–121). Cambridge: MIT Press.
8.
DeGraffM. (2003). Against Creole exceptionalism. Linguistic Society of America, 79, 391–410.
9.
DoddB.HolmA.HuaZ.CrosbieS. (2003). Phonological development: A normative study of British English-speaking children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 17, 617–643.
10.
Gildersleeve-NeumannC. E.DavisB. L.MacNeilageP. F. (2000). Contingencies governing the production of fricatives, affricates, and liquids in babbling. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 341–363.
11.
GoldsteinB.FabianoL.IglesiasA. (2004). Spontaneous and imitated productions in Spanish-speaking children with phonological disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 3, 55–15.
12.
GoldsteinB.IglesiasA. (1995). Phonological patterns in normally developing Spanish-speaking 3- and 4-year-olds of Puerto Rican descent. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 27, 82–90.
13.
IglesiasA. (1985). Communication in the home and classroom: Match or mismatch?Topics in Language Disorders, 5, 29–41.
14.
JakobsonR.FantG.HalleM. (1951). Preliminaries to speech analysis: The distinctive features and their correlates. Cambridge: MIT Press.
15.
JosephP. T. (2007). Phonological acquisition among Malaysian English child speakers of Indian descent. Journal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia, 4(2), 13–26.
16.
KleinT. B. (2003). Syllable structure and lexical markedness in Creole morphophonology: Determiner allomorphy in Haitian and elsewhere. In PlagIngo (Ed.), The phonology and morphology of Creole languages (pp. 209–228). Tübingen, Germany: Niemeyer.
17.
LadefogedP.MaddiesonI. (1996). The sounds of the world’s languages. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
18.
LeeS. A. S.DavisB. L. (2010). Segmental distribution patterns of English infant- and adult-directed speech. Journal of Child Language, 37, 767–791.
19.
LefebvreC. (1998). Creole genesis and the acquisition of grammar: The case of Haitian Creole. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
20.
LégerF.ArmbristerA. P. (2009). Factors affecting the teaching and learning of Haitian Creole in the Bahamas. The College of the Bahamas Research Journal, 15, 22–35.
21.
MacLeodA. A. N.SuttonA.TrudeauN.ThordardottirE. (2011). The acquisition of consonants in Québécois French: A cross-sectional study of pre-school aged children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 13(2), 93–109.
22.
MatherP. A. (2006). Second language acquisition and creolization. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 21, 231–274.
23.
McLeodS. (2007). The international guide to speech acquisition. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.
24.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). Improving the measurement of socioeconomic status for the National Assessment of Educational Progress: A theoretical foundation—Recommendations to the National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/researchcenter/Socioeconomic_Factors.pdf
PierrehumbertJ. (2000). The phonetic grounding of phonology. Les Cahiers de l’ICP, Bulletin de la Communication Parlée, 5, 7–23.
27.
PorterJ. H.HodsonB. W. (2001). Collaborating to obtain phonological acquisition data for local schools. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 165–171.
28.
PratherE. M.HedrickD. L.KernC. A. (1975). Articulation development in children aged two to four years. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 40, 179–191.
SanderE. K. (1972). When are speech sounds learned?Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 37, 55–63.
32.
SmitA. B.HandL.FreilingerJ. J.BernthalJ. E.BirdA. (1990). The Iowa Articulation Norms Project and its Nebraska replication. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 55, 779–798.
33.
SpearsA. K.JosephC. M. B. (2010). The Haitian Creole language: History, structure, use, and education. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books.
34.
Stoel-GammonC. (1985). Phonetic inventories, 15-24 months: A longitudinal study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 28, 505–512.
35.
Stoel-GammonC.DunnC. (1985). Normal and disordered phonology in children. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
36.
TemplinM. (1957). Certain language skills in children: Their development and interrelationships. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
37.
VellemanS. L.VihmanM. M. (2007). Phonology in infancy and early childhood: Implications for theories of language learning. In PenningtonM. C. (Ed.), Phonology in context (pp. 25–50). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
