Previous investigations have proposed that nasality in consonants are more perceptually stable than place of articulation inconstrained conditions. This paper investigates the progression of initial consonant clusters from a reduced to an adult-like form in terms of manner and place of articulation in the speech of children between the age of 1;6 and 3;5. The results show an earlier onset of stable production of manner compared to place for in both full clusters and in the reduced form. The results are interpreted as evidence of the importance of perceptual salience of segmental properties in the acquisition initial consonant clusters.