| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to investigate the phonological productions of Spanish-speaking Chilean and Mexican-American preschoolers. Twenty-one typically developing children of Chilean descent participated in the study and were age-matched with twenty-one children of Mexican-American. Chilean children's ages ranged from 3;8 (years;months) to 5;9, with a total of five boys and 16 girls. Mexican-American children's ages ranged from 3;9 to 5;8, with a total of 10 boys and 11 girls. The children were administered the Assessment of Phonological Processes-Spanish (APPS-2). Based on the results, children from Chile showed the highest percentage of phonological deviations in the following categories: final consonant deletion, consonant cluster reduction, and stridency deletion. Mexican-American children evidenced the highest percentage of phonological deviations in the following categories: liquids, consonant clusters, glides and stridents. The results from the APPS-2 illustrated that the TOMPD scores of the Chilean children and Mexican-American children were not significantly different when age was considered. However, when comparing the TOMPD scores of Chilean vs. Mexican-American children (combined ages), a significant difference was found, showing a dialectal difference between the two groups. However, the TOMPD scores of Chilean children were not significant enough to place them in a higher severity range than the Mexican-American children. Both groups evidenced dialectal differences unique to the dialect but within normal limits for their age. Therefore, there are specific dialectal differences of phonological patterns that need to be considered in assessment, such as /s/ clusters and consonant sequences. These differences should not be considered a disorder, because the children from both groups are following common phonological patterns of their dialect. Information on phonological patterns frequently produced by children of different dialectal backgrounds will help clinicians assess more reliably and will help provide more effective treatment.
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