Which of the following statements accurately identifies why a 30-month-old, producing these and other similar words, has delayed phonology: 'blue' → [bwu], 'sleep' → [swip], 'face' → [fet], 'rabbit' → [wæbit], 'car' → [ka], 'duck' → [dʌk], 'lock' → [lɑk], 'zippers' → [zɪpʌ], 'man' → [mæn], 'bus' → [bʌʦ], 'bag' → [bæɡ].

• A. She does not produce /l/-clusters correctly.
• B. She does not produce fricatives in the word-final position.
• C. She does not produce liquids in the word-initial position.
• D. She does not produce enough different consonants in the word final position.

Answer: (B)

The pattern being tested is the child’s difficulty with sounds in the word-final (coda) position, specifically fricatives. At around 2½ to 3 years, many children still master final consonants, and fricatives in coda position are a common area of delay. In these examples, the final fricatives are consistently not produced as fricatives: the word ending /s/ in “face” comes out as a stop [t], the final /s/ in “bus” is realized as an affricate [ʦ], and in “zippers” the final fricative is omitted altogether, leaving a final sound that is not a fricative. This pattern—final fricatives being replaced or dropped—indicates a slower development of the coda fricative system, which is a hallmark of delayed phonology at this age.

Other patterns are present (like simplifying consonant clusters at the start or substituting liquids with glides), but they don’t point to the same clear issue as the persistent absence or non-fricative realization of final fricatives. That focus on word-final fricatives best explains the observed speech profile.