Abstract

VITOR, Renata Maia  and  CARDOSO-MARTINS, Cláudia. Phonological development of preschool children at the Northwest Region of Belo Horizonte. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2007, vol.13, n.2, pp. 383-398. ISSN 1677-1168.

The aim of this study is to describe the phonological development among Brazilian Portuguese (Minas Gerais variant)-speaking preschoolers. The methodology assessed the speech of 95 children attending preschool classes in private schools in the Northwest region of the city of Belo Horizonte. The children were classified according to the number and type of phonological processes. In addition, the Phonological Density Index - PDI (Edwards, 1992) was calculated. Results indicated a relatively small number of children (N = 35) who did not show any phonological process. Liquid replacements and cluster reductions were the most frequent phonological processes in the children’s speech. Finally, variations in the phonological development were correlated with age variations. As a conclusion, the results have important implications to the diagnosis of phonological impairments among children in the last years of preschool speaking the Mineiro variant of Brazilian Portuguese.

Keywords : Language; Phonology; Preschool children.

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