# fis phenomenon

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. The observation that a child's perception of phonemes occurs earlier than the ability to produce them.

## Etymology
From an incident reported in 1960 by J. Berko and R. Brown. A child referred to his inflatable plastic fish as a fis, but rejected adults' statements that used the same mispronunciation.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/fis-phenomenon