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The current paper describes Spanish acquisition of rhotic onset clusters. Data are also provided on related singleton taps/trills and /l/ as a singleton and in clusters. Participants included 9 typically developing (TD) toddlers and 30 TD preschoolers in Chile, and 30 TD preschoolers and 29 with protracted phonological development (PPD) in Granada, Spain. Results showed age and developmental group effects. Preservation of cluster timing units preceded segmental accuracy, especially in stressed syllables. Tap clusters versus singleton trills were variable in order of mastery, some children mastering clusters first, and others, the trill. Rhotics were acquired later than /l/. In early development, mismatches (errors) involved primarily deletion of taps; where substitutions occurred, [j] frequently replaced tap. In later development, [l] more frequently replaced tap; where taps did occur, vowel epenthesis sometimes occurred. The data serve as a criterion reference database for onset cluster acquisition in Chilean and Granada Spanish.

Background: Research on children's word structure development is limited. Yet, phonological intervention aims to accelerate the acquisition of both speech-sounds and word structure, such as word length, stress or shapes in CV sequences. Until normative studies and meta-analyses provide in-depth information on this topic, smaller investigations can provide initial benchmarks for clinical purposes., Aims: To provide preliminary reference data for word structure development in a variety of Spanish with highly restricted coda use: Granada Spanish (similar to many Hispano-American varieties). To be clinically applicable, such data would need to show differences by age, developmental typicality and word structure complexity. Thus, older typically developing (TD) children were expected to show higher accuracy than younger children and those with protracted phonological development (PPD). Complex or phonologically marked forms (e.g. multisyllabic words, clusters) were expected to be late developing., Methods & Procedures: Participants were 59 children aged 3-5 years in Granada, Spain: 30 TD children, and 29 with PPD and no additional language impairments. Single words were digitally recorded by a native Spanish speaker using a 103-word list and transcribed by native Spanish speakers, with confirmation by a second transcriber team and acoustic analysis. The program Phon 1.5 provided quantitative data., Outcomes & Results: In accordance with expectations, the TD and older age groups had better-established word structures than the younger children and those with PPD. Complexity was also relevant: more structural mismatches occurred in multisyllabic words, initial unstressed syllables and clusters. Heterosyllabic consonant sequences were more accurate than syllable-initial sequences. The most common structural mismatch pattern overall was consonant deletion, with syllable deletion most common in 3-year-olds and children with PPD., Conclusions & Implications: The current study provides preliminary reference data for word structure development in a Spanish variety with restricted coda use, both by age and types of word structures. Between ages 3 and 5 years, global measures (whole word match, word shape match) distinguished children with typical versus protracted phonological development. By age 4, children with typical development showed near-mastery of word structures, whereas 4- and 5-year-olds with PPD continued to show syllable deletion and cluster reduction, especially in multisyllabic words. The results underline the relevance of multisyllabic words and words with clusters in Spanish phonological assessment and the utility of word structure data for identification of protracted phonological development., (© 2014 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.)

The Grammatical Structures Comprehension Test (CEG) was used to analyze grammatical comprehension problems in native Spanish-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The test is divided into 20 blocks containing the most common grammatical structures in Spanish. Our objective was to establish whether the CEG was sensitive in detecting these problems and whether there were differential patterns in grammatical comprehension between children with SLI (14 participants) and two control groups: a chronological control group (CC) with 14 participants and a linguistic control group (LC) also with 14 participants. We found significant differences between the SLI group and the chronological control participants (Box's M = 63.080, F = 1, 159, p = .238), with a correct classification rate of 85.7 % in the discriminant function analysis. These differences did not occur in all the blocks, in which we identified a range of different performance patterns that varied according to the structures being analyzed. This work helps to clarify certain questions about grammatical comprehension in children with SLI and contributes to the debate on delay vs. "delay within the delay".

A crosslinguistic study is underway concerning children's protracted phonological development (i.e. speech sound disorders). The current article reports pilot Spanish data for this study from two 4-year-old boys with protracted phonological development. The purposes of the pilot study were to: (1) develop and evaluate a word list for elicitation that could be used across Spanish dialects and that sufficiently sampled Spanish word lengths, stress patterns, word shapes and phonemes; and (2) to derive hypotheses for the larger study, based on patterns found in these children's speech, and a review of the literature. The two speakers showed some developmental patterns reported for other languages (e.g. constraints on production of liquids and word-initial consonants in unstressed syllables) but also patterns that may reflect Spanish phonological inventories, allophony and frequencies. These data helped consolidate the Spanish word list for elicitation and led to questions for the ongoing study concerning word structure, multisyllabic words, liquids, fricatives and vowel sequences.

The objective of this study was to estimate the agreement and reliability of voice evaluation by a group of expert listeners using the central portion of a sustained vowel and a fragment of connected speech as voice samples. Ratings were made using Wilson's Buffalo III Voice Screening Profile. Analysis showed that intraindividual listeners' agreement presented variability in the evaluation of both voice samples. In the evaluation of the central portion of the sustained vowel, interindividual listener agreement was moderate for breathiness, hyponasal resonance, and overall voice rating; in connected speech, agreement was moderate for most voice qualities (breathy, rough, high/low pitch, and hyponasal resonance). Finally, Wilson's Buffalo III Voice Screening Profile presented good reliability values for both voice samples, with overall voice rating achieving higher values (.90) than any other voice-quality variable.