The influence of vocalic context on various temporal and spectral properties of preceding acoustic segments was investigated in utterances containing [E♯CV] sequences produced by two girls aged 4;8 and 9;5 years and by their father. The younger (but not the older) child’s speech showed a systematic lowering of [s]noise and [th] release burst spectra before [u]as compared to [i] and [æ]. The older child’s speech, on the other hand, showed an orderly relationship of the second‐formant frequency in [E] to the transconsonantal vowel. Both children tended to produce longer [s]noises and voice onset times as well as higher second‐formant peaks at constriction noise offset before [i] than before [u]and [æ]. All effects except the first were shown by the adult who, in addition, produced first‐formant frequencies in [E]that anticipated the transconsonantal vowel. These observations suggest that different forms of anticipatory coarticulation may have different causes and may follow different developmental patterns. A strategy for future research is suggested.