Progressive and Regressive Phonological Processes: an Audiological Screening of Children Aged 3 to 4

An audiological and linguistic screening was conducted on 40 threeand four-year old children at an early childhood center. The effect of middle-ear infections, flat tympanograms, and thresholds above 25 dB on the production of phonological patterns was examined. Children failing the audiological screening show a lower number of adult words (75%) and a higher number of substitutions (22%) and deletions (3%), while normal children exhibit a higher number of adult words (86%) and a lower number of substitutions (13%) and deletions (1%). These findings have implications for child linguists studying phonological processes in normal children, since it is suggested that children with a delay in the production of phonological processes may go undetected.