Abstract
To analyze the recognizability and effectiveness of items in the Phonological Assessment Tool (Instrumento de Avaliação Fonológica - INFONO) at eliciting target words, as well as to evaluate the internal consistency of the instrument and compare performance between genders, school types and typical vs. atypical phonological development. Participants were 48 children (n=26 with typical phonological development and n=22 with atypical development) categorized by age (6 age groups ranging from 3 years and 8 years 11 months), type of school (public vs. private) and gender (male vs. female). Data were collected by the spontaneous naming task of the INFONO. Recognition rates, scores, recognition difficulties and internal consistency were examined in 116 items. Performance in a final set of 84 items was also compared between genders, school types and typical/atypical phonological development. Most target words achieved high recognition rates were considered suitable for use in the INFONO. Some images had to be redesigned to facilitate the spontaneous production of target words, while other items were excluded from the instrument altogether. The instrument demonstrated excellent internal consistency. There were no statistically significant differences between genders and school types, though differences were observed between typically and atypically developing children. The images in the INFONO were successfully recognized by participants and were effective at eliciting the target words. The final set of items contained the minimum number of target words which would allow for an assessment of all phonemes in Brazilian Portuguese in different word and syllable positions, and these items presented excellent internal consistency.
Highlights
The ability to produce speech sounds begins to develop in infancy and shows significant expansion in the pre-school age group
The aim of this study was to analyze the adequacy of the items proposed for the Instrumento de Avaliação Fonológica (INFONO)(21) in terms of their recognizability and ability to elicit the production of the target word, as well as examine the internal consistency of the items and compare their performance between genders, school types and phonological development profiles
The reason for this was an absence of target words which could be illustrated through images and were in the vocabulary of young children
Summary
The ability to produce speech sounds begins to develop in infancy and shows significant expansion in the pre-school age group. Phonological development begins with the production of the first sounds and continues until age five(3), at which point the acquisition of speech sounds is usually complete. Adequate phonological development requires the learning of articulatory movements involved in sound production (phonetic factors) as well as familiarity with the organizational or structural aspects of the language’s phoneme inventory (phonological factors)(5,6). This process can be difficult for some children, and result in alterations to one or both of these factors
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