This article employs the methods of consonant inventories and discriminant analysis to explore the variation in word-initial consonants generated by 24 children learning six Mayan languages. The range of variation in the consonants that children generate has important implications for theories that forecast children follow universal processes of consonant evolution as well as theories that forecast individual children display unique evolutions. The results display variation exists between children learning the same language as well as between children learning different languages. Both the qualitative and quantitative results show the structure of the adult phonologies limits the set of the children's variation within each language even though the children leave out a variety of word-initial prefixes. The exploration of language acquisition in related languages discloses how children's attention to the adult language restricts the operation of both universal and individual processes.