SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROFILE OF CHILDREN IN AN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FROM THE CITY OF TRAMANDAÍ

Ano: 2013 | Volume: 17 | Número: Suplemento

Autores: Martinez CC, Luz CO, Vidor DCGM, Vernier LS.

Resumo Inglês:

This study aimed to investigate the speech and language profile of Pré B and first-year students. This is a cross-sectional study with data collection in public schools from early childhood education and elementary school from the city of Tramandaí, Brazil. It was performed in collaboration with Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA) (Porto Alegre, Brazil). For speech and language assessment, the phonological part of the Teste de Linguagem Infantil (ABFW), a clinical observational method, and the analysis of spontaneous speech and picture naming were used. The normal development of language, speech and voice were in accordance with the national literature. For statistical analysis, the Chi-square test was used, and performed by SPSS 13.0 software. The study participants consisted of 697 children, 368 (52.8%) of which were boys. Of 697 participants, 235 (33.7%) children were Pré B students, 462 (66.3%) children were first year students, and 304 (43.6%) children had a speech-language disorder. The observed disturbances were phonological disorder (58.2%), phonetic-phonological disorder (9.9%), speech production disorder (21.4%), dysphonia (5.6%), language delay (3.9%), and disfluency (1%). The variables gender and speech-language disorder did not show a significant association (p = 0.056), disturbances were more predominant in boys. The variables speech-language disorder and school year showed a significant association (p = 0.019), indicating that the result "not amended" is significantly associated with the first year and the result "amended" is significantly associated with the Pre B students. This demonstrates that a high number of children have a speech-language disorder, especially in early childhood education, and that there is a tendency of worse performance for males. This highlights the necessity of early identification of disturbances with the aim of preventing disorders and promoting student healthcare.