Phonological changes and social determinants: cases seen at a speech therapy assessment clinic

Abstract

Objective: Identify and analyze the prevalence of phonological variations and the association with social health determinants in the children who were attended in a phonological evaluation and diagnostic clinic. The children were from four to ten years old. Methods: Analysis of medical records of 74 children who were phonologically evaluated from 2010 to 2014. Sociodemographic data such as age, sex, family income, per capita income, parents and patient education, living area, as well as final result of the Phonology Test of Children’s Language Test – PTCLT - was collected. The records included were those from children from four to ten years old who took the test and had complete anamnesis and assessment reports. Medical records of children with evidence of intellectual disability, hearing impairment or visual impairment and neuropsychiatric disorders were excluded. The analysis of the data was done through frequency distribution and central tendency and dispersion measurements, and Pearson and Mann-Whitney chi-square tests were used for the associations. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, as well as the request for exemption from the TCLE. Results: The association analysis allowed verifying the existence of statistical significance relation between the phonological evaluation result with mother’s education as well as the father’s education. The other associations did not reveal statistically relevant information. Conclusions: It should be stressed the importance of the speech and language pathology work in public schools and public health centers, due to the association between the phonological evaluation final result and the parents’ education.