ABSTRACT
Introduction:
There is a growing interest of researchers in instruments designed for assessment of speech perception.
Purpose:
To develop an instrument to perceptual identification of phonemic contrasts in the Brazilian Portuguese for children over 4 years of age.
Methods:
The construction of the instrument involved four procedures: a) design of the experimental task; b) stimuli selection which constituted the instrument; c) operationalization of the test; and d) establishing the analysis criteria. It was used a computer attached to a headphone and PERCEVAL software.
Results:
The proposed instrument comprises a subset of four experiments that evaluate separately the identification of contrasts between vowel segments and between stops consonant segments, fricative and sonorant consonant segments. The test presents includes three stages: word recognition stage, training stage and testing stage, with an approximate 15-minute overall duration. The analysis of children's auditory perceptual performance is carried out based on three criteria: accuracy, reaction time and pattern of phonic contrasts identification, being recorded following a specific protocol.
Conclusion:
Studies that have used the PERCEFAL in their methodology have reported a low percentage of non-response by children (between 2 and 5%), which indicates that the task is appropriate for its purpose. It is encouraged the use of the instrument in different regions of the country in order to inquire not only its applicability, due to the existing linguistic diversity in the country; but also, to determine its sensitivity and specificity.
Keywords:
Speech perception; Phonetic; Child
