PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of extralinguistic factors in the acquisition process of the post-vocalic segments /N, L, S, R/. METHODS: The research involved 170 subjects with ages between 1:2 and 3:10 years, within normal phonological development, monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The data collected from these subjects were 3026 lexical items originated from AQUIFONO and INIFONO databanks. The roles of extralinguistic and linguistic variables in coda acquisition were investigated, however, in this article, only the results of the variables age and sex were explored. Statistical analysis used the VARBRUL package. RESULTS: Both extralinguistic factors analyzed were relevant to the process of normal phonological acquisition. Age played a statistically favorable role in the acquisition process of all phonemes in both coda positions. There was an increase in the correct production of phonemes with age, however this growth was not linear. The first productions of the rhyme VC with /L/ in final coda occurred at 1:2, while the complete mastery of all four segments licensed in coda position was gradual, and was attained in stages extended until 3:8. Among the variables considered, sex was the second most selected by the statistical program, showing significant statistical differences for the variable sex in the acquisition of codas with medial /N/, /L/ e /S/ and the final coda with /L/. CONCLUSION: It was found a higher probability of correct use of the coda as age increased, but regressions in its use were observed, which should be seen as a normal stage of the development. Regarding sex, there was a tendency for male subjects to present higher phonological precision, however, this does not mean they present different acquisition stages when compared with female subjects.
Speech; Language; Language development; Verbal behavior; Linguistic; Child
