Development of word and syllable structure in Chilean children with typical and protracted phonological development

The acquisition of syllable structure constitutes a core component of phonological development in early childhood and enables the differentiation of typical and protracted trajectories in Spanish. However, evidence regarding how structural factors (i.e., syllable structure complexity, word length, and within-word position) modulate phonological accuracy remains limited for Chilean Spanish. To address this gap, performance on syllable structure production by children with typical development (TD) was compared with that by children with protracted phonological development (PPD) using the Word Shape Match (WSM) metric. Participants were 160 children aged 3;0–6;11 years, evenly distributed by age and developmental group. Each child completed a Spanish naming task comprising 100 words. Productions were phonetically transcribed and analyzed with Phon 3.1. Results revealed significant differences in WSM scores between TD and PPD across all age ranges, with consistently higher accuracy in the TD group. Independent logistic regression models were applied for each group, with age, word length, syllable type, and syllable position entered as predictors. In both groups, age, word length, and syllable structure complexity emerged as significant predictors; however, in PPD, syllable position also had a significant effect, with higher accuracy in later (medial and final) syllables. WSM thus proved to be a clinically sensitive indicator for distinguishing phonological trajectories, underscoring the importance of integrating suprasegmental measures into the assessment of children’s speech.