PURPOSE: to investigate how speech therapists have been using the terminologies that refer to phonetic/phonological disturbance in the clinical experience, as well as to discuss the theoretical basis that has supported their terminological choices. METHODS: an exploiting research was done involving sixty speech therapists in order to get data through their answers to the following questions: Do you make any difference between Dyslalia, Articulatory Impairment and Phonological Deviation? If so, what is the difference? The data were descriptively analyzed through percentage distribution. Significance tests were applied, using significance level of 5%. Data analysis that was carried through in a discursive perspective promoted the discussion on the relationship between Phonetics and Phonology and their implications on phonetic/phonological alterations. RESULTS: almost half of the interviewed speech therapists (45%) said they were not differentiating the terminologies used to name the phonetic/phonological alterations or not knowing how to explain them. The subjects that stated to differentiate the three terms, as a general rule, provided evasive or little clear explanations as for the terminologies. Such results reveal that most subjects in the said research, in their speech therapy experience, just reproduce largely used terminologies without having an appropriate know-how about the theme, reflecting the existence of a gap between the linguistic theorization and the clinical practice. The latter usually has been developed on the fringes of the former one. CONCLUSION: it was shown that, despite the great improvements in linguistic knowledge, in practice, some speech therapists still keep the thecnicist character that took part in the history of Speech Therapy.
Phonetics; Language Disorders; Diagnosis; Speech Therapy
