# Identification of obstruent contrasts by children with and without phonological disorders

## TL;DR

This study compares how children with and without speech disorders identify certain speech sounds, finding that those with disorders perform worse and take longer.

## Contribution

The study introduces a comparison of auditory-perceptual accuracy and reaction time in children with phonological disorders for different types of speech sounds.

## Key findings

- Children with phonological disorders had significantly lower accuracy in identifying obstruent sounds.
- They also showed longer reaction times for stop sounds compared to children with typical development.
- Errors related to articulatory points were most common across both groups and sound types.

## Abstract

(1) To compare auditory-perceptual accuracy and reaction time in children with and without phonological disorders for identifying the contrast of obstruents, and (2) to verify whether there is an effect of the phonetic class (stops vs. fricatives) on the accuracy, reaction time and error pattern.

Sixty-two children (41 diagnosed with phonological disorders and 21 with typical phonological development), aged between 4 and 9 years, participated in the study. An identification task was performed in the obstruent class using the speech perception assessment instrument (PERCEFAL). Reaction time, percentage of correct and incorrect answers, and the error pattern were considered in the analysis. Results: Regarding auditory–perceptual accuracy, children with phonological disorders had a significantly lower average of correct answers than children with typical phonological development for both obstruent classes. Regarding reaction time, children with phonological disorders showed longer reaction times for the stop class (p≤0.05). In the error pattern analysis, errors involving the articulatory point were the most frequent for both classes and both groups of children.

The presence of phonological disorders implies attenuated perceptual accuracy. The longer reaction time of children with phonological disorders depends on the phonic class.

(1) comparar a acurácia perceptivo-auditiva e o tempo de reação em crianças com e sem transtorno fonológico na identificação do contraste das obstruintes; (2) verificar se há um efeito da classe fônica (oclusivas vs fricativas) na acurácia, no tempo de reação e no padrão de erro.

Participaram do estudo 62 crianças (41 com diagnóstico de transtorno fonológico e 21 com desenvolvimento fonológico típico), entre 4 a 9 anos de idade. Foi realizada uma tarefa de identificação na classe das obstruintes, a partir do instrumento de avaliação de percepção de fala (PERCEFAL). O tempo de reação, a porcentagem de erros e acertos, bem como o padrão de erro foram considerados na análise.

Com relação à acurácia perceptivo-auditiva, as crianças com transtorno fonológico tiveram uma média de acerto significativamente inferior quando comparadas às crianças com desenvolvimento fonológico típico, para ambas as classes. Quanto ao tempo de reação, as crianças com transtorno fonológico apresentaram maior tempo de reação para a classe das oclusivas (p≤0,05). Na análise do padrão de erro, os erros envolvendo o ponto articulatório foram os mais frequentes para ambas as classes e para ambos os grupos de crianças.

A presença do transtorno fonológico implica em menor acurácia perceptual. O maior tempo de reação das crianças com transtorno fonológico é dependente da classe fônica.