Phonological processes are patterns of normal development in which young children simplify standard adult speech. All children use these processes during their speech and language development because they don’t have the ability to coordinate the lips, tongue, teeth, palate and jaw for clear speech. For example, children between 1-3 may say “wa-wa” for “water” or “tat” for “cat.” Some children may delete the final sound in words (for example, “pi” for “pig” or “ha“ for “hat.”).  As the age progresses, their speech get improved and they will stop using these patterns to simplify words. By the age of 5 most children will stop using all the phonological processes and their speech sounds will be more like the adult’s speech.  Phonological processes compare a child’s articulatory production to normal adult production.

There are different types of phonological processes and are Substitution in which one sound is substituted for another sound (eg:tar for car; datefor gate,Ken for pen ,tee for see ,Wabbit for rabbit ,shop for chop ,shup  for soup )Syllable structure(top for stop,nana for banana,bu for bus,Pælet for plate,elephant for efalant)and Assimilation(kack for tack,money for funny,Bub for book)

Phonological processes are considered to be normal unless they persist beyond the age when most typically developing children have stopped using them. For example ifa 4 year old child still  uses phonological process -“reduplication “that is,saying, “wa-wa” for “water” this would  be considered as delayed since most children stopsthis process by 3 year. When a child uses many different processes which are not present during the speech acquisition, their intelligibility may get impaired/ affected making them really difficult to understand. The excessive use of phonological processes can also indicate a phonological disorder. As a result, if you have a highly unintelligible child they’re likely to have a phonological delay, and their phonological skills should be assessed when considering a treatment plan.