Analysis of distortions in children with and without phonological disorders

To verify using 4 different tests the incidence of distortions in children with and without phonological disorders.

Forty children between 4 and 10.2 years of age, divided into 2 groups: 20 with normal development and 20 with phonological disorders. All children underwent the phonology tests of the Child Language Assessment ABFW and 2 spontaneous speaking tests to assess for phonologic alterations. After recording, the data were printed, analyzed, and classified according to the distortions. Nonparametric (Mann-Whitney) statistical analysis was performed with the significance level being set at P <.05.

The phonological disorder group had significantly more occurrences of distortions in all tests compared to the control group (naming, P = .04; imitation P <.001; spontaneous speaking 1, P = .01; and spontaneous speaking 2, P = .002. The Pearson correlation coefficients of the distortion occurrences among the 4 tests were high.

The phonological disorder group presented a greater number of distortions in all tests. The most frequent ones were /s, z, 3/ and the variability found within the phonological disorder group was very high. The children in this group had unstable phonological systems and so presented a high number of different distortions. Regarding the evaluation of the phonologic system, all the tests were good evaluation methods since the correlations between them were high.