Introduction The process of acquiring new language skills is essential for the proper development of a young learner. According to Chomsky, the age of one to three years is considered critical for a young learner; unless a child develops a proper language basis, further development is barely possible. It is imperative that the parents and instructors should facilitate the process of language acquisition for the child, as even minor changes in the environment may disrupt it (O’Grady & Archibald, 2012, p. 357). Young Thomas (1.5) has been having issues with acquiring new vocabulary. Even though both parents encourage the child to develop the “baby talk” that could be as close to the actual language as possible, the young learner prefers onomatopoeic methods of demoting the objects and people around him, as well as voicing his concerns with exclamations and noises instead of using actual words. It is suggested that a set of exercises combined with active engagement in communication with Canadian children of the same age will allow Thomas to develop the required skills. Also, parental involvement and encouragement are imperative for a successful intervention. Data The information provided below was retrieved by recording the dialogues between the child and the members of his family, as well as the utterances that the child made in the course of playing or interacting with the people and objects around him. Semantic Categories Body parts and functions Stomach – tummy Buttocks – bum Basic qualities Cold – cole Pretty – pwiti Disgusting – yuck(y) Kin terms and nicknames Mother – mommy Father – daddy Grandmother – nana Familiar objects and creatures Cat – kitty Dog – bow-wow Bird – boid Teddy bear – deddy Rain – wain Familiar actions To eat – yum-yum To urinate – peepee To give – gi; variation: “give me” – gimme Exclamations Dissatisfaction – ugh! Delight – yay! Annoyance – uhm! Attention getter – da! Frustration – nuh! Pain – ouh! Noises (When playing games) Boo! (When expressing something that he does not know the word for) Gaga!, Nana! Morphological and Phonological Analysis of the Data Assimilation One of the key characteristics of Tommy’s speech concerns the fact that in a range of situations he assimilates the consonants in the words that he pronounces. One of the most graphic examples is the word “gimme,” which the child says quite often. In addition, such examples as “daddy,” which is a “teddy (bear)” with the first “t” being assimilated to “d,” show that Thomas needs a long practice in pronouncing sounds, particularly, learning to differentiate between the sounds that may seem similar. Clusters Speaking of the sounds that may seem similar or appear to be too hard for Tommy to pronounce, active use of clusters can be spotted instantly when listening to the child’s speech. For example, the word “pwetty,” which the child uses instead of “pretty,” is a clear-cut example of a cluster or a particular case of a phonological substitution. The phenomenon in question is fraught with serious consequences, as the child does not make any attempts at training to pronounce the letter “r” properly and, instead, searches for the means to substitute it with an appropriate sound. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the case when the child