Phonological process Description Example Approximate

age of
elimination

Cluster reduction When a consonant cluster is “truck” à “tuck” ~4 years;

produced with only one “slide” à “side” Including /s/,
consonant “brown” à “bown” gone by 5 years

Final consonant deletion When the last consonant of a “dog” à “daw” ~3 years
word is omitted
Initial consonant deletion When the first consonant of a “dog” à “awg” Never typical;
word is omitted seen in more
severe
phonological
disorders
Weak syllable deletion When the first unstressed “banana” à “nana” ~4 years
syllable of a word is omitted
Epenthesis When a sound is added “plane” à “puh-lane” ~8 years
between two consonants,
often “uh”
Backing When alveolar sounds /t/ or /d/ “bus” à “buhk” Never typical;
are substituted with /k/ or /g/ “lid” à “lig” seen in more
severe
phonological
disorders
Fronting When velar sounds /k/ or /g/ are “bag” à “bad” ~3.5 years
substitued with alveolar “lake” à “late”
sounds /t/ or /d/
Affrication When a non-affricate is “doggie” à “joggie” ~3 years
substitued with an affricate,
“ch” or “j”
Deaffrication When an affricate “ch” or “j” is “choo-choo” à “shoo shoo” ~4 years
substituted with a fricative or “chip” à “dip”
stop, like “sh” or /d/
Alveolarization When an non-alveolar sound is “shoe” à “tu” ~5 years
substitued with an alveolar “make” à “nake”
sound
Depalatalization When a palatal sound is “dish” à “dit” ~5 years
substituted with a non-palatal
sound
Labialization When a non-labial sound is “toad” à “poad” ~6 years
substituted with a labial sound, “nail” à “mail”
/m/, /p/, or /b/.
Gliding When /l/ or /r/ becomes a /w/ or “yellow” à “yewo”or “yeyo” ~6 years
/y/ sound “rock” à “wock”
Stopping When a fricative or affricate is “foot” à “put” /f, v, s, z/ by 3
 replaced with a stop “jump” à “dump” years
“ch” “sh” “th”
“j” by 5 years
Vowelization When /l/ or “er” sounds are “apple” à “appo” --
replaced with a vowel “color” à “colluh”
Assimilation When a consonant is “ladder” à “dadder” ~3 years
substituted with another “bub” à “bus”
consonant within the word
Denasalization When a nasal consonant like /n/ “monkey” à “bunkey” ~2.5 years
or /m/ is substituted with a non- “nose” à “dose”
nasal sound like /d/ or /b/
Final Consonant Devoicing When a voiced consonant at “bug” à “buck” ~3 years
the end of the word, like /d/ is “road” à “wrote”
produced as its unvoiced
counterpart, like /t/
Prevocalic Voicing When an unvoiced consonant “fish” à “vish” ~6 years
at the beginning of the word, “sip” à “zip”
like /f/, is produced as its voiced
counterpart, like /v/
Coalescence When two phonemes are “spoon” à “foon” --
substituted with a consonant
that has similar features
Reduplication When a sound or incomplete “bottle” à “baba” ~3 years
syllable is repeated