Speech and language impairments of arabic-speaking jordanian children within natural phonology and phonology as human behaviour

Abstract

The present contribution is concerned with a pilot study of empirical issues in the analysis of speech and language impairments in the speech of a sample of Arabic-speaking Jordanian children. The study aims at developing diagnostic tools for assessing the developmental status of the phonological processes in the child's disordered speech based on the chronology of their development in normally developing children. It also aims at providing a sound linguistic basis for this development. The theoretical linguistic basis for the study is taken from Natural Phonology (NP) and Phonology as Human Behaviour (PHB). Additionally, one of the theoretical goals is to provide further external evidence for developing the NP theory. The results of this study confirm, on one hand, some of the common patterns that are reported in the literature concerning phonological disorders language-universally, and on the other hand, they show some Arabic language specific features as well.