Daniela Evaristo dos Santos Galea

Características fonológicas de crianças com transtorno fonológico com e sem histórico de otite média

PURPOSE: To verify the number of types, the total occurrence and the mean of phonological processes in phonologically disordered children with and without otitis background. METHODS: The subjects were 44 children diagnosed with phonological disorder, half of them with otitis background and half without any history of otitis, from the Laboratory of Phonology of the Speech and Language Pathology Course of the Medical School USP-SP. The imitation and picture naming tests (Wertzner, 2000) were carried out in order to analyze the phonological processes. RESULTS: In the otitis group, the most occurring phonological process in the imitation test was the fricative devoicing and in the picture naming, the liquid simplification. In the group of children with no otitis background, the cluster reduction and the fricative devoicing were the most used processes in the picture naming and in the imitation tests, respectively. Only the cluster reduction in the picture naming test had differences between both groups. There was no statistical difference regarding the mean of phonological processes types. CONCLUSION: Although some children with phonological disorder might present otitis media, the analysis did not allow the identification of a linguistic marker that can differentiate children with and without otitis background.

Phonological performance measured by speech severity indices compared with correlated factors

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Some factors seem to influence speech impairment among phonologically disordered children. The aim was to compare severity indices with some correlated factors. DESIGN AND SETTING Observational, analytical and cross-sectional study conducted within the Language-Speech-Hearing Sciences Course, Universidade de São Paulo. METHOD Fifty phonologically disordered children with ages ranging from 4 to 11 years took part. The indices were calculated from phonology tests and were correlated with anamnesis and audiological data. Students t test and Spearmans correlation were used to compare percentages of consonants correct (PCC) and process density index (PDI) for children with and without otitis, upper respiratory histories and audiological abnormalities, with regard to whether or not they were comprehended during assessment, their ages when they started to speak and their ages at the assessment. RESULTS The higher the age at the assessment was, the higher the PCC (imitation: 0.468; naming: 0.431; Spearmans correlation) and the lower the PDI (imitation: 0.459; naming: 0.431); the later the child started to speak, the lower the PCC (imitation p = 0.064; naming p = 0.050) and the higher the PDI (imitation p = 0.067; naming p = 0.042). There were differences between groups with and without upper respiratory history (PCC: imitation p = 0.016, naming p = 0.005; PDI: imitation p = 0.014, naming p = 0.008). There was no difference between the groups regarding otitis, comprehension during the assessment and audiological data. CONCLUSIONS Children with upper respiratory histories who began to speak later presented more severe speech impairment indices.

Provas de nomeação e imitação como instrumentos de diagnóstico do transtorno fonológico

BACKGROUND: phonological disorder. AIM: to verify the association between the phonological performance in picture naming and imitation tasks, assessing the occurrence of phonological processes and using the severity indexes of Percentage of Correct Consonants and Phonological Density Index. METHOD: participants of this research were 50 phonologically disordered children, with no history of prior speech-language therapy and with ages between 4:0 and 12 years. RESULTS: The analysis of the phonological processes indicated that the non-productive processes were more frequent than the productive ones, not only in the imitation task but also in the picture naming task. It was observed that in both tasks, most participants presented the phonological processes of cluster reduction, liquid simplification and final consonant deletion, independently of their productivity. When comparing both tasks, there was an association and agreement regarding the number of participants who presented phonological processes as well as a correlation regarding the total number of phonological processes; there was no evidence of differences concerning the averages of the phonological processes observed in the imitation and picture naming tasks; a negative correlation was observed between the severity indexes Percentage of Correct Consonants and Phonological Density Index; moreover, these values presented a strong correlation in both tests, indicating that they detect similar severity levels. CONCLUSION: the study verified an association and agreement between the picture naming and imitation tasks, not only for the number of participants who presented phonological processes, but also for the number of phonological processes, thus indicating the importance of using structured tests for the diagnosis of phonological disorder. Furthermore, for the severity indexes, Percentage of Correct Consonants and Phonological Density Index, a high correlation was observed between the tasks, indicating that both tasks are useful instruments in detecting phonological disorder.

Comparação entre onset e coda silábica durante a aquisição fonológica

PURPOSE: To verify whether there is a difference between accuracy percentage of /s/ and in syllable onset and coda in children from 2:1 to 3:0 years old. METHODS: Subjects of the research were 88 typically developing children: GI: 41 children from 2:1 to 2:6 years old, and GII: 47 children from 2:7 to 3:0 years old. All subjects attended public daycare centers; they did not have any complaints of language deficits or more than three episodes of otitis media, and were all Brazilian-Portuguese monolingual speakers. Data collection was carried out through three phonology tests: picture naming, imitation and spontaneous speech. RESULTS: Regarding accuracy of the /s/, there was a difference between onset and coda in the final syllable of the naming test (p=0.038), with better performance in coda than in onset, for GII. Although there was no statistical difference in the other tests and syllables analyzed, children from both groups presented better performance in onset than in coda, with exception of the GI in the final syllable of the imitation and in the initial syllable of the naming test. Considering accuracy of the /r/, in all comparisons of final syllable, children from both groups had statistically higher means in onset than in coda. In medial syllable, children showed better performance in onset, however, difference was not significant (p=0.205). CONCLUSION: In general, there was no difference between the /s/ in syllabic onset and coda. On the other hand, regarding the , there was a difference between the two positions within the syllable, and children from both groups showed more accuracy in the onset of the syllable.

Medidas fonológicas em crianças com transtorno fonológico

PURPOSE: To compare and correlate the performance of children with and without phonological disorders (PD) according to phonological awareness (PA) abilities, Percentage of Consonants Correct - Revised (PCC-R) and Speech Inconsistency Index (SII). METHODS: Participants were 36 children with ages between 5 and 7 years divided into: Research Group (RG) - 18 children with PD; and CG - 18 typically developing children. The PCC-R was calculated, and the SII and the Phonological Sensitivity Test - Visual mode (PST-V) were applied. The PST-V consists of six tasks: equal and different alliteration (EA and DA, respectively), total alliteration (TA), equal and different rhyme (ER and DR, respectively), and total rhyme (TR). Results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Differences were found between groups in all indexes, with better performances of the CG. In this group there were negative correlations between SII and all PA abilities and between SII and PCC-R, except for the ER. There were positive correlations between all PST-V subtests. On the RG, positive correlations were observed between PCC-R and alliteration abilities; no correlations were found between SII and PCC-R nor between SII and PA subtests. There were correlations between PST-V abilities: EA and TA; DA and TA; DA and DR; ER and TR; DR and TR. CONCLUSION: Children with PD had worse performances. CG children develop rhyme and alliteration abilities as they stabilize their speech production. RG children are more inconsistent and tend to develop PA abilities in a more disorganized manner.