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Updated: May 23, 2026

Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
Longitudinal changes in phonological whole-word measures in 2-year-olds
Maggie M Watson1, Pamela Terrell
1University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, 54481, USA. maggie.watson@uwsp.edu
Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation was to describe changes in whole-word productions in the speech of children as they aged from 24 to 36 months. Spontaneous language samples were obtained from 12 participants during parent-child interactions every 3 months, beginning with each participant's second birthday. Fifty different words from each sample were analysed to determine changes in a variety of whole-word measures including phonological mean length of utterance (PMLU) for target words and words produced, proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP), and proportion of words produced correctly (PWC). Significant changes in whole-word measures were evidenced by the participants over the course of the investigation, and those scores did not show stabilization by the age of 36 months.
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