It’s always endearing to hear children speaking in their unique ways, especially while they’re still very young and starting to speak. However, this will become an issue if the youngster continues to speak in baby language after a particular age.

This period of learning to speak their parents’ language, with all of its flaws, is referred to as the phonological process.

What Exactly Is It?

When a youngster attempts to imitate the noises their parents make, they are unable to generate all of the sounds. That is when they are unable to articulate a whole word and must replace some consonants with other consonants.

A nice example is when a youngster says “bak” instead of a bag, to mention just one of them. They will even omit consonants entirely to enunciate phrases like “hoe” instead of house and “appe” instead of apple.

All of these flaws will be eliminated when the child’s brain develops and completely grasps the spoken language. Fortunately for little children, they are unaware that they are dropping letters and portions of words, which would have irritated them.

Is this a normal occurrence?

There is no need to be concerned because this is a normal and natural procedure for tiny children to acquire the spoken language. If your youngster approaches you and requests a nana instead of a banana, this is a positive indication.

It indicates that the youngster can discriminate between different items and knows what it is but cannot appropriately pronounce them. Reduplication, such as wawa for water, and velar fronting, where a kiss is tiss, are two further instances of the typical learning process to speak.

Although not every child employs the same form of replacement or velar fronting, they all go through this process when learning to talk. So, there’s nothing wrong with your youngster saying teffone instead of telephone; they’ll catch on.

When Will It Be Over?

It is common for children to speak in this manner until they are about three years old, although some of these processes can extend much longer. Some children will maintain velar fronting for up to 4 years and cluster reduction for up to 5 years.

Cluster reduction occurs when two or three consonants occur in a row and the youngster omits at least one of them.

Finally, consider the following:

As a result, it is entirely typical for a youngster, in fact, all children, to employ these phonological processes to communicate. Nature is assisting children in not overburdening their brains with the whole range of language.

Even those who take longer to learn and always listen to expert guidance.