What describes the replacement of a sound made in the back of the mouth with a sound made in the front?

The correct choice is fronting, which refers to the phonological process where a sound that is typically articulated in the back of the mouth, such as /k/ or /g/, is replaced by a sound produced in the front, such as /t/ or /d/. This change often occurs in the speech of young children as they develop their phonetic awareness and articulation skills. For instance, a child may say "tat" instead of "cat" or "dob" instead of "gob," demonstrating this shift of the articulation from the back to the front of the mouth.

In contrast, other processes describe different speech sound changes. Gliding involves substituting liquid consonants like /l/ and /r/ with glide sounds like /w/ or /j/. Backing, on the other hand, refers to the replacement of front sounds with back sounds, which is the opposite of fronting. Stopping involves substituting fricative or affricate sounds with stop consonants, such as saying "pat" for "fat." Understanding these processes is important for speech-language pathologists as they work with children to support their speech development.