Abstract
Purpose: To assess the auditory perceptual performance of children in a task of identification of vowel contrasts, to classify which phonemes and vowel contrasts provide higher or lower degrees of difficulty, and to verify the influence of age in this performance. Methods: Data recordings of auditory perceptual performance of 66 children in a task of identification using the software Perception Evaluation Auditive & Visuelle (PERCEVAL) were selected from a database. The task consisted of presenting sound stimuli through headphones to children, who would then choose, from two pictures arranged on the computer screen, the one corresponding to the word they heard. The time between auditory inputs and the child's reaction was automatically computed in the software. Results: The perceptual accuracy was 88% and we found a positive correlation with the variable age. The time of response was significantly longer for incorrect answers as opposed to correct answers (p=0.00). Different degrees of similarity in auditory perception were observed, where front vowels were similar more often than back vowels. The tendency for errors was prevalent in the range of non-peripheral to peripheral vowels, which suggests that the latter may serve as a reference or perceptual anchor. Conclusion: The auditory perceptual ability concerning the identification of vowel contrasts is not yet established in the age group studied. The auditory perception of vowel contrasts occurs gradually and asymmetrically, as the order of acquisition in terms of production and perception was not always the same.
Highlights
Studies on phonological acquisition have been mostly dedicated to speech production, that is, when and how children learn to produce target sounds in their language[1,2,3]
After approval by the Ethics Committee of Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), information about the auditory perceptual performance of 66 children in identifying stressed vowels of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) was selected from a database of a Research Group on Language, consisting of 39 males and 27 females ages from 5 to 6 years
The vowel contrasts presenting higher or lower degrees of difficulty in auditory perception are listed in the confusion matrix (Table 1)
Summary
Studies on phonological acquisition have been mostly dedicated to speech production, that is, when and how children learn to produce target sounds in their language[1,2,3]. The following order of phonological acquisition is well-established: vowels, plosive, nasal, fricative, and liquid sounds[4]. Within each of these groups, a gradual acquisition is predicted[4]. When it comes to nasal sounds, /m/ and /n/ are first acquired, /ɲ/ being the last one established. The order of acquisition of liquid sounds alternates between lateral and non-lateral, /l/ being the first, followed by /R/, /ʎ/ e/r/
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