Assessment of phonological processing: an instrument for risk factors of specific language impairment and other language disorders

• Grant number: 10/02850-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2010
• End date: November 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Simone Rocha de Vasconcellos Hage
• Grantee: Simone Rocha de Vasconcellos Hage
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru (FOB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The evaluation of the processing of linguistic information at both expressive and receptive in its different levels allows the clinician to identify which of levels are affected and thus develop therapeutic plans that focus on the changed processes. With respect to Specific Disorder Language (DEL) one of the hypotheses for the origin of the disorder, on the psycholinguistic point of view, is the existence of a deficit in phonological processing. Among the various ways in which the phonological information is involved in information processing, three have been prominent at the interface with the DEL: working memory, phonological, lexical access and phonological awareness. There is a large number of studies that relate changes in phonological processing with SLI. In this context, it is essential to have standardized and validated instruments that can verify this ability. This study aims to obtain reference values in tasks of lexical access and phonological awareness in different age groups. Will be selected 400 subjects with typical language development aged 5 years and 8 years and 11 months, having in the sample, the gender balance. Children will be selected from public and private elementary schools and will be subject to the following tests: Test of Fast Lexical Access (RALE) and the Phonological Awareness Test (CoF), both created by the author of this project. The results obtained in the tests will be subjected to statistical analysis describing the values of mean, standard deviation, minimum,maximum and median, and other tests for the necessary comparisons. Being considered significant p value <0.05. (AU)