ABSTRACT
Purpose:
Investigate the effect of age in stressed vowels identification in Brazilian Portuguese in children.
Methods:
The hearing-perceptual performance of 155 children, between 5 and 9 years old (divided in 2 groups: G1 and G2) was evaluated with the use of a software named Perception Evaluation Auditive & Visuelle (PERCEVAL), in a task of stressed vowels identification in Brazilian Portuguese. Acoustic and visual stimuli were presented, asking a child to choose the corresponding picture according to the word listened, between two possibilities of images shown on a computer screen. The presentation time of the stimuli and the children's reaction were calculated, automatically, by the software.
Results:
The group of older children (G2) presented a better hearing-perceptual accuracy, comparing to the accuracy of the younger children's group (G1). As to the reaction time, the G1 has always presented a higher reaction time comparing to the children in G2, for both the mistakes and successes. As to the standard of mistakes, generally, the groups didn't differ. The analysis of correlation between age and accuracy showed that the children from G1 presented a positive correlation with the age. However, it didn't happen with the children from G2.
Conclusion:
The hearing-perceptual ability, concerning the identification of vocalic contrasts, seems to occur gradually and stabilizes at 9 years old.
Keywords:
Auditory perception; Evaluation; Speech; Phonetics; Child
