Which phonological process is expected to be suppressed by 3 years of age?

Weak syllable deletion is a phonological process that is commonly observed in young children as they develop their speech skills. By the age of 3, most children begin to suppress this process as their phonological and language skills improve.

Weak syllable deletion involves omitting the unstressed syllable in a multisyllabic word. For example, a child might say "nana" instead of "banana." As children's articulation and awareness of syllable structure develop, they become more adept at producing words with all their syllables intact, which typically leads to a reduction in weak syllable deletion by this age.

In contrast, other processes like stopping (substituting a fricative sound with a stop) and consonant cluster reductions (simplifying clusters of consonants to a single consonant) may not be fully mastered until later in development, often extending beyond the age of three. Therefore, weak syllable deletion is recognized as one of the earlier processes that is usually resolved by the time a child reaches three years old.