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Perception and production data were collected from 28 children, ages 1 year 8 months to 3 years 11 months to test four specific hypotheses on the acquisition of initial fricatives and glides in English, based on the assumptions that perception precedes production and unmarked precedes marked. Perception data were collected by the Shvachkin-Garnica technique for "phonemic perception." Pairs of objects are given nonsense names, CVCs differing only in the initial sound; the child is asked to perform certain actions with the named objects and if he is correct 7 out of 10 trials, he is assumed to have demonstrated phonemic perception of the opposition in question. Production data were compared to the perception data. Results only partially confirm the hypotheses and indicate that (a) children as late as age 3 do not have complete phonemic perception, (b) phonemic perception develops gradually, generally in advance of production, and (c) the order of acquisition shows trends toward uniformity but is not universal. (Author)

This paper concerns the acquisition of the English liquids 1 and r by one boy, Daniel, between August 1968 and March 1970, from the age of 1 year 6 months to 3 years 1 month. This study follows the model proposed in Stampe's "The Acquisition of Phonetic Representation," in which the child's pronunciation is derived from his mental representation of adult speech. This is done through the operation of an innate system of phonological processes. The child's successively closer approximations of adult pronunciation are interpreted as reflecting his limitations or suppressions of those processes which are not common to the adult system. The present paper outlines the main processes relevant to the acquisition of English liquids, and data are summarized to show how one particular child suppressed some of these innate processes in such a way as to arrive at a nearer approximation of the liquids used by adults in speaking English. (Author/PMP)