PURPOSE: to characterize the speech of 4- to 6-year-old children in two public day care centers in Belo Horizonte and classify it according to two national benchmark references. METHOD: 60 children were evaluated regarding their speech. Analyses were made up on top of the phonetic inventory, according to the order of occurrence proposed by two authors, and the association among the classifications was studied. RESULTS: the rate found for speech mismatch was high in both centers, with 45% and 53.3% of the children showing inappropriate speech abilities according to the ratings 1 and 2, respectively. A good agreement between the two classifications was found (Kappa coefficient = 0.768). No statistically significant association between gender and age was found. The most noted speech disorders were unsystematic presence and replacement, the only phonemes with 100% of occurrence in the total sample of assessed children were /t, k, m, n, ŋ/. The less frequent phonemes were /R/ (30%), cc/ſ/(63.3%) and cc/l/ (68.3%). CONCLUSION: 4- to 6-year-old children still produce many phonemes in an unsystematic way, occurring speech changes such as replacement and omissions. Factors that might have influenced the results, such as, the research site, economic class and individual characteristics, that should be taken into account. Other studies of phonological acquisition are needed, contributing to early intervention programs and preventive actions in the school environments.
Speech; Child Day Care Centers; Child
