Although this is the general concept that many researchers utilize, it is not a concrete definition. Researchers who study mastery of sounds take into consideration a different factor, which creates variability between the numbers of different studies. Some researchers consider the consonant blends while others do not (Sander, 1972). As mentioned above, there is not a conclusive definition that could be used to finding the age of acquisition of sounds. Alongside the criteria of how to measure when a sound is acquired, children have variability in how they acquire sounds. Not all children acquire the sounds the same way. Although, researchers try to generalize a list of sounds and the age of mastery, they are not accurate. Cross-sectional studies are based off a group of children that are picked based on socioeconomic factors that reflect society as a whole. Once the children have been picked, researchers utilize selected materials in the form of pictures or objects that have to be named by the child. The objects and pictures are chosen based on how well they represent the sounds that the researchers believe best represents the target sounds that are being researched. Sander (1972) suggests that the data collected from such studies should be based on a child’s spontaneous speech rather than on activities that have …show more content…
The first factor is, the age in which the sound first appears should be considered. Second factor is, the age in which the earliest correct production of the sound utilized in words should also be taken into consideration. The third and last factor concerns the age of customary production. Customary production is defined as a concept in which the child produces the correct sound a greater number of times than when the child either produces in error or eliminates the production of the sound (Sander, 1972). Sander believes that the concept of mastery of sounds should be changed into customary production, which would allow researchers to remove bias from their findings (Sander, 1972). Among other researchers besides Wellman, there was also another researcher by the name of Templin. Templin based the age of mastery in a study in which he analyzed the speech sound production of 480 children (Sander, 1972). From the group of 480 individuals, Templin studied their acquisition of sounds based on initial, middle and final position of the target sounds in words. Sander criticized Templin’s findings by calling them arbitrary (Sander, 1972). Sander then states that Templin’s mastery of sounds findings excluded children below three years of age (Sander,