Why is a 30-month-old's phonology delayed, given examples such as blue→ [bwu] and sleep → [swip]?

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

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is that a phonology delay often shows up as a limited set of consonants the child can produce, especially in final position. In the examples, the child substitutes the liquid /l/ with a glide like /w/ in both blue (which has no final consonant) and sleep (which ends in a final /p/). This shows a pattern of simplifying liquids in onset clusters, which is common early behavior, but the more telling sign of a delay is the lack of variety in final consonants across words.

If you look at the two forms, the only final consonant that appears is /p/ in sleep; blue has no final consonant at all. At 30 months, many children are beginning to use a broader set of final consonants (not just one). The absence of a range of final consonants indicates a restricted final-consonant repertoire, which aligns with a phonological delay rather than a problem limited to liquids in a specific position.

So the best match is that the child isn’t producing enough different consonants in the word-final position.