Phonological process usage by young EMR children and nonretarded preschool children.

Phonological skills of 20 mentally retarded children (IQs 50 to 75) were compared with those of 10 communication handicapped, nonretarded children and 10 normally speaking nonretarded children. All groups were matched on mean length of utterance scores obtained in a spontaneous speech sample. The Weiner Phonological Process Analysis Tool was administered to reveal phonological process usage. Retarded and communication handicapped children used a significantly greater total number of phonological processes more frequently than did nonhandicapped preschool children, but all the children used the processes in a specific order. Certain processes predicted the existence of others in children's speech patterns.