Editing Fis phenomenon (section)

== Language acquisition ==
All languages can be deconstructed into smaller elements, they are considered levels of languages that are divided into: The Phonological System, the Reference System, the Morphological System, and the Syntactic System.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mussen|first=Paul H.|title=Handbook of Research Methods in Child Development|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=1967|pages=517–557}}</ref> The Phonological System correlates to the different stages that a child acquires language. The acquisition process begins at birth, the brain begins to specialize in the sounds heard around them and begin to produce vowel-like sounds. This is the cooing stage. The babbling stage, six to 11 months, is when consonants like /m/ and /b/ are combined with vowels, m''a-ma-ma ba-ba-ba''. The next two stages are the one word stage, 12 to 18 months, and two word stage, 18 months to two years of age. At around two years, the child enters the telegraphic stage, where they learn to put multiple words together. Note that researchers can only estimate the ages in which a child transitions through the stages. This is due to many varying factors when the child is acquiring language, like mental capability, the right language environment, exposure to language, and more.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rowland|first=Caroline|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781444152661|title=Understanding Child Language Acquisition|date=2013-10-23|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-77602-5|edition=0|language=en|doi=10.4324/9780203776025}}</ref>

The Phonological System is broken up into two different categories, perception and production. As the child goes through the stage of acquiring the language, perception and production is being developed in the brain. The Fis Phenomenon occurs due to lack of production ability by the kid, though the child perceives the sound to be correct. The relation between perception, production and the Fis Phenomenon is discussed below.

=== Perception ===
The phonological performance of children is predominantly consistent and predictable, leading to the generally accepted notion that their performance is governed by a set of rules, and it is not a result of random deviations. These rules are used to navigate from the surface form (adult pronunciation) to child pronunciation. This idea might help explain the occurrence of things such as the Fis Phenomenon.

There is evidence to support the idea that a child manipulates isomorphic adult representations of language. This evidence stems from three areas: 1) that a child has the ability to recognize disparities in the adult form that the child is unable to produce 2) that the child understands their own speech and 3) their grammatical and morphological tendencies.

The role of perception in the phonological performance of children is that their lexical representation of the adult form is first passed through the child's perceptual filter. Meaning that the adult pronunciation, or surface form, is not necessarily the form that is being affected by the child's phonological rules. There is a clear difference between the adult form and the child's mental representation. Barton (1976)<ref>BARTON, DAVID, 1976. The Role of Perception in the Acquisition of Phonology. University College, London dissertation.</ref> tested this hypothesis and the results largely supported it, though there were later requests for a “perceptual explanation”.

The most notable example, shown below, illustrates the perception of consonant clusters compared to the child's output. Clusters consisting of [+nasal] followed by a [+voice] or [-voice] consonant are perceived differently by children.

<blockquote>mend → mɛn meant → mɛt<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Smith, N. V. (Neilson Voyne)|title=Acquiring phonology: a cross-generational case-study|date=17 April 2014 |isbn=978-1-107-66295-7|oclc=949367454}}</ref></blockquote>

The nasal before a voiced consonant is long and notable (me'''n'''d).

The nasal before an unvoiced consonant is indistinct, leaving the following consonant as the most notable of the cluster.

The child's mental representation is then converted by a small set of rules called Realization Rules, which are used to reach the final form, the child's pronunciation. An example of the implementation of Realization Rules is informally illustrated in the sample derivation below, where a child consistently produced ''squat'' as ''[gɔp]'':

<blockquote>/skwɒt/ → [skwɔp]	(harmonizing a coronal to a preceding labialized sequence /kw/)

[skwɔp] → [kwɔp]	(deleting pre-consonantal /s/)

[kwɔp] → [kɔp]		(deleting post-consonantal sonorants)

[kɔp] → [gɔp]		(neutralizing the voicing distinction)<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>

=== Production ===
Although children seem to be able to recognize the correct pronunciation of “fish”, they can only produce an /s/, meaning that they are left saying “fis” instead. Since the problem doesn't seem to be speech perception, experts believe that the problem is associated with mostly the coordination of speech muscles, leaving them to think that these children's speech muscles need practice.<ref>{{Cite web|title=LINGUIST List Home Page|url=https://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080714021753/http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 14, 2008|publisher=linguistlist.org|access-date=2020-05-04}}</ref>  One way that experts encourage the practice of speech production in children are by word/phrase repetition. In this case, it'll be helpful to practice words that contain the /ʃ/ sound in “fish”.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Childhood apraxia of speech - Diagnosis and treatment - Mayo Clinic|url=https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-apraxia-of-speech/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20352051|website=www.mayoclinic.org|access-date=2020-05-04}}</ref><br />