Presentation - ECV2024-515

Children’s speech development: English (Canadian)

Susan RVACHEW, McGill University, Canada, (susan.rvachew@mcgill.ca)
Barbara May BERNHARDT, University of British Columbia, Canada, (may.bernhardt@audiospeech.ubc.ca)
Alexis K. BLACK, University of British Columbia, Canada, (alexis.black@audiospeech.ubc.ca)
Glenda MASON, University of British Columbia, Canada, (gkellmas@audiospeech.ubc.ca)

Canadian English is spoken throughout Canada, although less so in Quebec where French is the official language. Standard Canadian is widespread notwithstanding marked dialectical differences in Newfoundland. The phonetic repertoire is similar to that of General American English, including stops, nasals, fricatives, affricates, semivowels, vowels and diphthongs along a range of place values and an obstruent voicing contrast; the rhotic /ɹ/ can be syllabic and occurs in codas. Canadian English is written from left to right using the Modern Latin Alphabet (Roman script). The few studies of children’s acquisition of Canadian English that have been published demonstrate an acquisition trajectory similar to that of General American English with most phonemes acquired by age 7;0; except /θ, ð, s, z/ which may be mastered as late as 9 years. Canadian researchers have shown that a nonlinear approach to assessment and treatment as well as speech perception and phonological awareness treatment procedures are efficacious for speech sound disorders. Assessments that were developed in other English-speaking countries are commonly used.

Key words:
English (Canadian), multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Rvachew, S., Bernhardt, B., Black, A., & Morgan, G. (2025). English (Canadian) speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

Scroll to Top