Whole-Word Phonology and Templates: Trap, Bootstrap, or Some of Each?

Advances in psycholinguistics have identified cognitive mechanisms that may account for the phenomena of whole-word phonology and phonological templates in normally developing children. Deficits in these same mechanisms may also account for certain types of disordered phonologies. In this paper, these cognitive mechanisms are described, strategies for identifying whole-word phonological patterns in normal and disordered phonologies are proposed, and intervention strategies that draw on these same mechanisms as a way to overcome their inappropriate persistence are recommended.