Environments favorable for the production of plosives phonemes /k/ and /g/

Abstract

Purpose: the objective is to verify the linguistic and extralinguistic variables that favor and disfavor the correct production of the plosive phonemes /k/ and /g/ in children with speech disorders. Method: the sample was composed by a speech corpus of 80 children with speech disorders (1937 words) of both genders, and aged between four and eight years, of which 30 presented the /k/ and /g/ phonemes changed and 50 presented only the phoneme /g/ changed in the phonological system. The speech corpus was collected through the application of the Phonological Assessment of the Child instrument (AFC) and the speech disorder severity was classified according to the Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised, light misuse (LD), mild-moderate (DLM), severe-moderate (GDM) and severe (DG). The analyzed linguistic variables were: position in the word, tone, number of syllables, part of speech, preceding and following context. The extralinguistic variables were age and speech disorder severity. It was considered statistics significance at p <0.05 and the following probabilistic parameters: 0.50 to 0.59 neutral, greater than 0.59 favoring, below 0.50 disfavoring. Results: the program selected as significant factors for both phonemes the age variable. For the phoneme /k/ the tone variable, in which the post-tonic position favors the correct production. For /g/ the severity of phonological disorder preceding context variables, the last being favorable for the nasalized vowel. Conclusion: the selection of target words for the phoneme /k/ must consider the tone and for the phoneme /g/ should consider the preceding context.