QMC Working Papers in Speech and Language Sciences. 43 Edited by James M. Scobbie

Our programme of research aims to find answers to the following questions. How do children acquire their phonetic and phonological systems? What types of developmental delays and disorders occur? Why do such problems occur? In this paper we add to the growing body of evidence that children can acquire phonological systems before they are able to master the phonetic skills needed to convey the contrasts in that system. We present the case of a child with a developmental phonological disorder who is able to manipulate two cues to the initial stop voicing contrast, in such a way that listeners are unable to hear the contrast. The ?W? ?G? and ?VW? ?G? contrasts exist in his speech, but are covert. The cue used by the child, and our method of detecting it, have not been reported previously.