Page 199 www.ijiras.com | Email: contact@ijiras.com International Journal of Innovative Research and Advanced Studies (IJIRAS) Volume 3 Issue 5, May 2016 ISSN: 2394-4404 Phonological Processes Of 2.6 To 6 Years Old Typically Developing Tamil Speaking Children Kala Dhanavendan Research Scholar, CAS in Linguistics, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India Dr. Lalitha. R. Raja Assistant Professor, CAS in Linguistics, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India I. INTRODUCTION Speech is the primary mode for the expression of language. Speech is a system in the sense that it consistently and usefully relates the meanings of a language with the sounds by which the language is communicated. All children embark on the development of their phonological systems from the same beginnings (Stampe, 1979). Children possess a full understanding of the underlying representation of the adult phoneme system. They however have difficulties with the peripheral motor realization of the phonetic surface form which are perceived as articulation errors. When children’s speech is analyzed, clear systematic patterns are found in their erroneous approximations to adult target words (Yavas, 1998). These error patterns are uniform across children and languages. One of the most common ways of describing these error patterns that has been used since a very long time is with reference to phonological processes. Phonological processes are regularly occurring deviations from the adult speech patterns; may occur across a class of sound, a syllable shape or syllable sequence (Hodson & Paden, 1983). All the phonological processes operate to simplify adult targets. Various classification systems of phonologic processes have been devised but they share some common features (Hodson, 1980; Ingram, 1981; Khan, 1985). Phonological Processes can be broadly described on the basis of occurrence of the Phonological Processes present during the production of consonants and vowels. According to Grunwell (1985), phonological processes can be characterized into three major categories: syllable structure processes, substitution processes and assimilation processes. This classification system acts as a comprehensive device for identification of the relationship between the adult target and the child’s erroneous productions. There has been little research directed toward determining the age, or age range, at which the various processes are present in the speech of normally developing children. The findings of various longitudinal studies involving single subjects or small groups of children and few cross sectional studies with larger subject populations (Crary et al., 1981; Hodson and Paden, 1982) provide a broad picture of the use of phonological processes at various chronological ages. Although there is considerable individual variation, phonological process occurrence can be divided into two major categories: Processes that disappear by the age of 3 and those that persist beyond 3 years of age (Stoel – Gammon,C., & Dunn, C.(1985).(Table.1). Abstract: The present study aimed at identifying phonological processes in 2.6 years to 6 years typically developing Tamil speaking children. Thirty typically developing Tamil speaking children, age ranged from 2.6 years to 6 years participated in the present study. They were divided into 3 groups with 10 children in each group divided in one year interval. Totally 160 meaningful di-syllabic and tri-syllabic words in combination of 18 consonants, 10 vowels and two dipthongs in initial, medial and final positions were used to assess. Results revealed that thirty seven phonological processes were observed in children. The present study identified substitution processes was the highest occurrence than other processes. Although the processes and occurrence of the process was found to decreased with increase in age group. Keyword: Phonological processes, typically developing children