PURPOSE: To compare the Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) index of children with and without hearing loss, and to verify whether the time using hearing aids, the time in therapy, and the time spent until hearing loss was diagnosed influence the performance of deaf children. METHODS: Participants were 30 children, 15 with hearing impairment and 15 with normal hearing, paired by gender and age. The PCC index was calculated in three different tasks: picture naming, imitation and spontaneous speech. The phonology tasks of the ABFW - Teste de Linguagem Infantil were used in the evaluation. RESULTS: Differences were found between groups in all tasks, and normally hearing children had better results. PCC indexes presented by children with hearing loss characterized a moderately severe phonological disorder. Children enrolled in therapy for a longer period had better PCC indexes, and the longer they had been using hearing aids, the better their performances on the imitation task. CONCLUSION: Children with hearing loss have lower PCC indexes when compared to normally hearing children. The average performance and imitation are influenced by time in therapy and time using hearing aids.
Severity of illness index; Hearing loss; Auditory perception; Language development; Cochlear implants; Articulation disorder
