Longitudinal changes in phonological whole-word measures in 2-year-olds

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to describe changes in whole-word productions in the speech of children as they aged from 24 to 36 months. Spontaneous language samples were obtained from 12 participants during parent-child interactions every 3 months, beginning with each participant's second birthday. Fifty different words from each sample were analysed to determine changes in a variety of whole-word measures including phonological mean length of utterance (PMLU) for target words and words produced, proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP), and proportion of words produced correctly (PWC). Significant changes in whole-word measures were evidenced by the participants over the course of the investigation, and those scores did not show stabilization by the age of 36 months.