Phonological awareness abilities of a child with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome before and after speech therapy

The aim of the present study was to characterize the phonological awareness abilities of a child with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) before and after speech-language therapy. The participant was a 6-year-old girl, first-grade Elementary School student, with AIDS acquired by vertical transmission. The child's phonological awareness abilities were evaluated using the Instrument of Sequential Evaluation of Phonological Awareness (CONFIAS). After this first evaluation, a closed therapeutic program (15 sessions) for phonological awareness was developed, consisting of activities for syllabic and phonemic levels. The CONFIAS was reapplied in the last session in order to investigate therapy effectiveness. In the pre-therapy assessment, the child scored 18 points in syllable tasks and 1 point in phoneme tasks, with a total score of 19 points. In the post-therapy assessment, the child scored 26 points in syllable tasks and 11 points in phoneme tasks, with a total score of 37 points. This study allowed us to characterize the performance of a child with AIDS in tasks of phonological awareness and the effectiveness of the therapeutic program. The score obtained before therapy was much lower than expected for the child's age, and presented significant improvement after speech-language therapy. Thus, professionals working with this population must be aware of therapeutic programs that approach phonological processing abilities in addition to other aspects.