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.
Language development disorders; Language arts; Severity of illness index; Language tests, Child; Child language
